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Some Imaginal Factors Influencing 
Verbal Expression 



A DISSERTATION 
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment 

of the Requirements for the 
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 

in the University of Michigan 



Departments of Rhetoric and Psychology 



By 
ESTHER E. SHAW 



Published as Psychological Monograph No. 113 of the 
Psychological Review 



Gbe TUnirersitp of ADfcbfQan 



Some Imaginal Factors Influencing 
Verbal Expression 



A DISSERTATION 

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment 
op the Requirements for the 

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
in the University of Michigan 



Departments of Rhetoric and Psychology 



By 
ESTHER E. SHAW 



Published as Psychological Monograph No. 113 of the 
Psychological Review 



JO 



This work was done under the direction of Professor John F. 
Shepard, and was made possible by the hearty co-operation of 
those who acted as subjects. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter I. The Problem and the Method of Attack I 

Chapter II. Mental Diagnosis. The Preliminary Experiments 10 

I. Reading of descriptive passages 10 

II. Spelling backwards and pronouncing from words spelled back- 
wards 18 

III. Letter squares 21 

IV. Words that sound alike but are spelled differently 24 

V. Word lists , 25 

VI. Words that are spelled alike but sound differently 29 

VII. Picture material 30 

Summary 50 

Chapter III. The Free Word Association Test 53 

The times 53 

The verbal element 56 

Parts of speech 58 

Concrete imagery 60 

Verbal imagery 63 

Types of imagery illustrated ' 68 

Unanalyzable mental content 70 

Influence of kind of word 74 

Summary 75 

Chapter IV. Individual Diagnosis Records 76 

Chapter V. Experiments Dealing with Verbal Expression and with the 

Mental Processes Preceding It 96 

Description of the experiments 96 

Objective results 99 

The time records 99 

Nature, of the vocabulary 102 

Literary excellence 106 

Mental content preceding expression 107 

Verbal imagery 107 

Judgments 115 

Genesis and form of sentence 118 

Chapter VI. Conclusions 123 

Appendix. The Preliminary Experiments 130 

Bibliography 137 



CHAPTER I 
The Problem and the Method of Attack 

This study was undertaken to see if any definite and valuable 
relations could be established between an individual's type of 
mental imagery and his ability to express himself in oral or writ- 
ten language. 

Classroom experience shows a great degree of variation in the 
power of quick, effective, and pleasurable expression in words 
on the part of students who are apparently equally intelligent 
and similarly trained. Some have a facility in the use of words 
which seems to be a dangerous thing, a temptation to super- 
ficiary and confusion. Others "have the idea but can't express 
it," or not immediately. The stock reply of the teacher, "You 
mean that you haven't any idea to express, or that it is too vague 
for expression," though often, no doubt, an accurate diagnosis, 
does not seem to apply in all cases. Another explanation of the 
student's inability to express himself, the effect of which is to 
make all clear thinking verbal, is implied in such statements in 
the rhetorics as the following by Arlo Bates i 1 "Every student 
should learn . . . that it (literary form) is an absolute essential 
of all clear thinking." A number of teachers, asked what part 
of the process of thinking they conceived of as taking place in 
words, answered, in the words of one of them, "Thinking and 
wording are one and the same process." That literary form is 
essential to all clear understanding on the part of the listener 
may be granted; whether it is essential to clear thinking is cer- 
tainly open to question. Intelligent and observant scholars seem 
to have had experiences similar to those of the inarticulate stu- 
dent. For example, Jespersen 2 says : "If you have to speak on 
a difficult or unfamiliar subject on which you would not like to 
say anything but what was to the point and strictly justifiable, 

1 Bates, Arlo, Introduction to Pearson's Freshman Composition. 

2 Jespersen, Progress in Language, pp. 23-24. 



2 ESTHER E. SHAW 

you will sometimes find that the thoughts themselves claim so 
much mental energy that there is none left for speaking with 
elegance, or even with complete regard for grammar; to your 
own vexation you will have a feeling that your phrases are con- 
fused and your language incorrect." Huxley speaks still more 
explicitly : "When a whole mass of different structures runs into 
one harmony as the expression of a central law, that law does 
not come first in the form of words." 

In the discussion that follows, the emphasis, instead of being 
thrown on the fundamental similarity of minds that makes com- 
munication possible, is purposely thrown on the dissimilarities 
(of less importance, perhaps, but too little recognized in English 
teaching as elsewhere) that make communication difficult. Ver- 
bal imagery is not depreciated; nor the importance of language, 
of communication, to all higher forms of thought; but attention 
is called to what is not verbal in thought, to relations existing 
between types of mental imagery, including verbal, and the pro- 
cess of expression. It is hoped that the results of such study 
will throw light on the principles and function of rhetoric, per- 
haps on the handling of different types of students in composi- 
tion. 

The motivation that makes for artistic expression, in literature 
as in any other art, is bound up, to a very large extent at least, 
with the instinctive and emotional, the sympathetic, side of the 
individual. 3 But is there nothing in the mental constitution of 
the literary artist that inclines him to words as a means of ex- 
pression, as a musician is inclined to musical sounds, nothing in- 
nate to account for the differences in individual writers ? Louns- 
bury 4 makes his "effectiveness" and "beauty" of expression de- 
pendent upon the "existence in the individual of an innate abil- 
ity." Newman, in his essay on Literature, says : "I do not claim 
for him (the great author), as such, any great depth of thought, 
or breadth of view, or philosophy, or sagacity, or knowledge of 
human life, though these additional gifts he may have, and the 

3 See Chap. V, pp. 107-122. 

4 Lounsbury, T. R., Compulsory Composition in Colleges. Harper's Maga- 
zine, Nov. 1911. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 3 

more he has of them the greater he is ; but I ascribe to him, as 
his characteristic gift, in a large sense the faculty of Expres- 
sion." 

After some investigation of the ways in which students 
learned to spell, it occurred to me that one of these innate fac- 
tors might well be the type of mental imagery habitually em- 
ployed. The first step in the procedure, obviously, was to see if 
sufficiently marked differences of type could be determined to 
make any correlation with verbal expression feasible. Miss 
Fernald's conclusions in her Diagnosis of Mental Imagery 5 indi- 
cate that such differences of type do exist. She finds marked 
differences in the character of the imagery used, though they 
cannot be formulated as simply a matter of better or worse 
imagery of a certain sort, since the characters appearing are to 
some extent independent variables. Obvious changes, moreover, 
occur in the imagery of a given subject with changes in the 
character of the tests. An adequate statement of an individual's 
imagery type, therefore, would involve an account not only of 
the specific characters of the kinds of imagery used, but of the 
kinds of imagery used in various representative situations, with 
an estimate of their relative importance. She does, however, 
classify her subjects into two groups, the first consisting of the 
more versatile, who seem to use visual-concrete and auditory- 
vocal-motor forms with perfect ease, and the second of those 
who have certain especially favored kinds of imagery which 
they use with considerable constancy. 

The motivation toward use of words which comes from a 
particular social environment, the differences in habits of thought 
dependent upon kind of work done, or on tastes and purposes, 
could only be taken into account in a general way — that among 
the subjects there should be those who are preoccupied with 
verbal expression, and those who are not so preoccupied; that 
as many tastes and temperaments as possible be represented. It 
was hoped in this way to avoid errors arising out of the use of 
subjects of such similar capacities and training that their results 
could be attributed to factors other than those under investiga- 
5 Fernald, M. R., Psych. Rev., Mon. Suppl. 14. 



4 ESTHER E. SHAW 

tion. If certain relationships between imaginal factors and 
characteristics of verbal expression remain constant through 
great temperamental and environmental diversities, then the 
temperamental and environmental factors would seem to be 
shown to be separable and independent. 

The subjects for these experiments were, accordingly, chosen 
from men and women interested in rhetoric and in science, be- 
cause it was thought that they would represent varied types of 
mind, one group especially interested in expression in language, 
the other dealing primarily with non-verbal material. The first 
group consisted of four graduate women, one senior woman, 
and three instructors, men, from the rhetoric department; the 
second group included two graduates, a man and a woman, 
and an instructor, a man, from the psychology depart- 
ment, a woman from the zoology department, and a woman 
from the chemistry department. The average age of the sub- 
jects was 27.7 years, the ages ranging from 23 to 33 years. One 
of the rhetoric instructors, By, had been a newspaper reporter, 
another, Ev, had been for some years a cartoonist. H, E, By, 
and Ty are writers of verse. T is a zoologist doing some scien- 
tific writing. By and Ty are distinctly musical, Y, T, and B 
distinctly non-musical. A acted as a subject for Miss Fernald. 
All were students or instructors at the University of Michigan 
during the years 19 14- 15 and 191 5-16. 

It was decided to use for this preliminary testing the experi- 
ments which Miss Fernald had tried and found most successful, 
with some modifications due to the difference in aim. More em- 
phasis has been put on introspection, and various changes in- 
troduced as the experiments proceeded. 

The reliance upon introspection, especially where some of the 
subjects used are not trained to it, may seem to some unjusti- 
fiable. But it seems to the writer more and more evident that 
if we are to discover anything more about the human mind than 
about the animal this method is necessary; that it would be 
foolish to throw away the opportunity afforded to us by human 
speech, that being quite as much a form of behavior as anything 
else, and, unless the subject is quizzed and led on by suggestion, 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 5 

just as truly a form of reaction to stimulus. The subject's great- 
est difficulty in introspection is to keep the form of the idea as 
it occurred during the period he is examining, separate from the 
development which takes place afterward. Immediate intro- 
spection, over a very brief and clearly defined period, decreases 
this difficulty. 6 What is it that goes on in the mind between the 
stimulation of the idea and its expression to an auditor in words ? 
is the question to be answered. For the purpose of this work it 
is just the course of development of an idea, and the forms that 
it is capable of taking, that are of interest; the introspection, 
therefore, in all the later experiments is taken to the end of the 
expression process, with as careful discrimination of the periods 
in the development and of the chronological order of it as the 
subject can accomplish. The conditions, though as far as pos- 
sible under experimental control, were made as little mechanical, 
as much like ordinary human intercourse, as possible. This 
seemed especially necessary in the last group of experiments, 
where otherwise the conditions of natural speech would not exist. 
The experiments fall into four principal groups. The first, 
or preliminary group, is primarily for the purpose of mental 
diagnosis, and, as has been said, repeats a number of the ex- 
periments described by Miss Fernald. All these experiments 
were accompanied by introspections, which not only supple- 
mented the objective results but furnished practice to those sub- 
jects who were unaccustomed to the task. 

Preliminary Group 

I. The first experiment consisted of the reading of descriptive 
passages, 7 four read in as normal a way as possible by the sub- 
ject to himself, two read aloud by the subject, and two read by 
the experimenter to the subject. The number of passages used 
and the method were varied more or less; several of the tests 
were followed by reproductions and all by oral or written intro- 
spections. This experiment seemed well adapted to bring out 

6 Ach, Willenstatigkeit und Denken. Kapitel I : Methodik. Die systematische 
experimentelle Selbstbeobachtung. 

7 For passages used see Appendix. 



6 ESTHER E. SHAW 

such concrete imagery as might be suggested to the subject by 
words. 

II. The second was given primarily to bring out visual-verbal 
factors, and consisted of spelling backwards, and pronouncing 
from words spelled backwards. 

III. This consisted of a series of memory tests, based on ar- 
rangements of Roman and Arabic numerals, letters, and other 
symbols, for example — 

B 4 t 

== m XI 

iii \ 1 
exposed for ten seconds, and designed to show whether visual 
images were employed in learning. 

IV. Experiment IV was a list of words alike in sound but 
not in appearance, designed to show whether or not the subject 
was able to use visual-verbal imagery in learning. 

V. Experiment V consisted of making lists of rhyming 
words, to bring out auditory-vocal-motor imagery, and lists of 
words with a common ending, like -one, to bring out the visual 
factor that seemed to be naturally involved. 

VI. The memorizing of words similar in appearance but not 
in sound, was intended, like the first part of V, to bring out the 
auditory-vocal-motor complex. 

VII. Experiment VII consisted in reports on the content of 
pictures and in the analysis of the imagery involved in learning 
and recalling this content. 

When it was felt that a good working idea of the imaginal 
types of the subjects had been gained, a test in free word as- 
sociation was added, to see (i) if any influence upon imagery 
of the kind of word given could be detected, (2) what relation 
the times bore to this and to the general type of the subject, and, 
more especially through introspection, (3) what sort of mental 
processes went on during these periods of concentrated atten- 
tion — for instance, whether concrete imagery having to do with 
the reaction word ever preceded that word in consciousness. 
This test consisted of one hundred and thirteen words, chosen 
largely from what might be called a literary vocabulary, though 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 7 

including a group of simple words from everyday speech, a 
small group of rare words, and a few distinctly scientific terms. 
These words were considered to belong roughly to five classes : 8 
objective words, nouns and verbs, referring directly to material 
objects or physical actions (carrot, paddle) ; (2) sensuous words, 
mostly adjectives, that were felt to be especially likely to stimu- 
late simple sense imagery (scarlet, hum) ; (3) words, mostly 
adjectives, that denoted characteristics or attributes of a less 
sensuous, or more complex nature (majestic, humble, severe) ; 
(4) words, mostly nouns, which on account of their literary 
history or the circumstances of their daily use are capable, as 
Pater 9 says, "of stirring a long 'brain-wave' " of associations 
behind them, that is, words of great connotative power (myriad, 
turf, treasure) ; and (5) words of a highly abstract sort, re- 
moved as far as possible from sensational stimulation (also, 
function). Some words (prose, omnibuses, broadens) used in 
former experiments were included; and a good many were 
chosen because of a likelihood that they would evoke others of 
the same quotation or stock phrase (braes, tide). A Hipp 
chronoscope and a modified Wirth apparatus were used in this 
experiment, and the times were carefully kept. 

The experiments of Chapter V are an attempt to examine 
mental processes from the arousal of an idea to its expression in 
verbal form, either spoken or written. These experiments, that 
is, have to do directly with the problem : to discover whether 
any valuable correlations appear between the results of such ex- 
periments and the previously determined imaginal types of the 
subjects. 

The experiments of group III are based on picture postals 
shown by means of a simple mechanical device, in an attempt to 
produce fairly natural verbal reactions. In series 1, eight cards 
were shown and the following direction given: Immediately af- 
ter the word 'ready' is spoken a picture postal will appear; you 

8 It is unfortunate that some of the terms used in classification, as objective, 
attributive, connotative, abstract, are from a logical or. philosophical vocabu- 
lary. They are used by the writer in default of better, to express various 
degrees of a possible power to evoke a sense stimulation or image. 

9 Pater, Walter, Style. 



8 ESTHER E. SHAW 

are to respond with the first thing that comes into your head to 
say about it. When the response came its time was noted by 
means of a stop watch, the card covered, and an introspection 
asked for. Series 2 consisted of ten cards in groups of five 
each, chosen so that the cards of the two series were as nearly 
similar as possible in interest and in type and complexity of 
subject matter. The direction for the first five asked for a 
complete statement, oral, embodying the impression or opinion 
of the subject. This was followed immediately by a timed in- 
trospection. For the second five the subject was directed to turn 
in his chair as soon as any statement came to mind and write 
it, following immediately with an introspection. 3 is a set of 
four cards for each of which a different direction is given, the 
intention being to get a written description under something like 
the conditions of theme writing. The time of writing is taken 
with a stop watch. In 4 the cards are described orally and a 
short-hand account and the times taken. 

The last group, IV, was planned to provide a more real- 
seeming subject matter, and used objects instead of cards. The 
objects were exposed by turning on a light over a table in the 
next room, the room in which the subject sat being in dark- 
ness except for a desk light. The subject was asked to react 
with a complete statement to some of the objects, and to write 
descriptions of others. Some of the objects would be more 
likely to produce simple sensations, and others a process of iden- 
tification, of a less automatic sort than appeared in the preceding 
group. It was felt also that certain of the subjects would be 
more interested, and thus more fairly tested, by the use of such 
material. 

Literature 

So far as I know, nothing has been done upon this particular 
problem. A great deal of work has, however, been carried on 
along two closely associated lines : in the study of imagery types 
and in the study of thought processes. Much has been done 
upon types of mental imagery, but rather on the forms in which 
material is learned and retained than upon the expressive side 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



of the process. I am indebted to all earlier workers in this field, 
and especially to J. R. Angell and M. R. Fernald, whose ex- 
periments and conclusions in the field of mental diagnosis I have 
used freely. The work most nearly approaching this in aim and 
in method, is that on thought processes done at Wiirzburg by 
Marbe, Ach, Watt, and Messer; Pillsbury's consideration of the 
mental antecedents of speech and Crane's study of association 
reaction, at the University of Michigan. 



CHAPTER II 

Mental Diagnosis 

The preliminary experiments. 

I. Reading of descriptive passages. 10 Subjects differ greatly 
in the amount, kind, and clearness, etc., of the imagery called 
up by the descriptive passages which they read or had read to 
them. 

The following reports of visual-concrete imagery illustrate the 
differences very well. The series from (i) particularly, gives 
the typical differences of the subjects in the amount of detail 
and in clearness and completeness of the picture. 

Ev. (i. Jefferies. Description of street corner.) Accepted 
the passage with perfect confidence that I could put it into 
images, that it was well done and suggestive. Recognized as 
color description rather than saw colors. 

R. (i) More schematic than anything else. Saw vehicles, 
pale yellow straw. 

B. (i) Got triangle and succeeded in rounding off apex. 
Dim visual image associated with Detroit. Dark mass of forms, 
indistinct. The carts were very diminutive and wouldn't fit in. 

H. (i) Saw carts and streets and movement. Saw high fat 
things for omnibuses. For "high white wool packs" saw brown 
sacking with bits of white sticking out. 11 

Y. (i) Scene was quite maplike in definiteness, but small as 
if viewed from a window above the street. (Speaking of color) 
Saw especially the red and green, and the shine on the varnish. 

T. (i) Saw an imaginary scene which kept overshadowing 
the described one all the time and becoming more prominent. 

10 See Appendix. 

11 It is perhaps significant that to Ev with his method, the passage appeared 
"well done and suggestive," to H who had a great deal of confused visual 
imagery, not to speak of auditory, etc., it appeared "overloaded," "forced." 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION n 

. . . Saw Ogden and the station there after a bit, and the carts, 
etc., filtered away. It was difficult to get details into this set- 
ting. There was also a picture of Miss P. feeding the doves in 
front of St. Marks. Description of vehicles was too mixed. . . 
had to read sentence over. Seeing the mountains at Ogden went 
easier than trying to get traffic. . . . The horses that were champ- 
ing their bits were nice black sleek horses in coach harness, 
guards on bit — one, double below with basket work, very orna- 
mental. Lots of foam on horses' mouths. (No conscious ef- 
fort to visualize.) 

S. (3. Scene from Esmond.) 12 Saw white round arm, large, 
quite out of proportion to figure, persisted as image by itself. 

B. (3) Got Beatrix coming down stairs, train appeared in 
three ways. Saw red stockings and white shoes, separate from 
Beatrix and from one another. 

Ev. (3) Visualized more or less because questioned on first 
one. Saw only very fleetingly. I can draw from these descrip- 
tions in novels — can "see the edges." 

H. (3) Saw Beatrix moving in full, shining clothes, with 
lighted candle. Scarlet stockings show. Saw her advance to 
Esmond and draw back. Swept curtsy almost to the ground, 
looking up with eyes and teeth shining. Staircase wide and 
shining out of dark. Saw turn of landing. 

Ev. (4. Stanza from poem.) 13 Reported no visual imagery. 

R. (4) Reported no visual imagery. 

By. (4) Thought very dimly of woods, camp fires, and wild 
places. 

B. (4) Saw birch log in fire place. Got distinct visual image 
of self in bed at night, awake and tense. "Young men" just 
vague forms. 

S. (4) Got general picture of woods at night, saw smoke, 
camp fire, and birch log — part of the time the log was in a fire 
place, though. (The visual was not the important imagery in 
this experience.) 

12 See Appendix. 

13 See Appendix. 



12 ESTHER E. SHAW 

H. (4) Got picture of recruits going down to St. Pancras 
station at night. 

Y. (4) Subject quite naturally described the picture she had 
seen. Says that in general she remembers from poetry a pic- 
ture, not the rhythm or words. Gets this picture "independent" 
of words — probably in sense of separate form — "as vivid as 
actual thing seen." The fact that subject very evidently did not 
get rhythm bears out her judgment. 

Visual imagery varies in amount, mobility, definiteness, fit- 
ting-together-ness, and in the character of its color; and these 
are apparently independent variables. H, for instance, has a 
great deal of mobile, fairly definite, bright-colored imagery, 
making a related whole; B has a little distinct and immobile 
and a fair amount of indistinct imagery, which when distinct 
does not form a related whole. Imagery appears also to vary 
in the accuracy of its reflection of the passage that stimulated it. 
Sometimes the associations called up by a single word or phrase 
control all the rest (T and H). It is something of a question 
whether a distinct picture called up in mind by the words read, 
as in the case of Y, or the clear visual imagery called up by as- 
sociation, as in the cases of T and H, marks a higher degree of 
visualizing power. It seems probable that the latter is at least a 
clear indication of the effective habitual use of visual imagery, 
of a high degree, that is, of persistence of visual memory. 

The types of imagery reported by individuals seem to differ 
as much as the type may vary within its self. Except in the 
stanza (4) with its definite appeal to olfactory imagery, 

"Who hath smelt wood smoke at twilight," 

no trace of such imagery is found, and there only in a few 
individuals. In at least two other passages an opportunity for 
such imagery was offered, in (5), 14 read by part of the subjects, 
where the line occurs 

"Like pious incense from a censer old" ; 
and in the description of sea and earth, (6). 15 

14 See Appendix. 

15 See Appendix. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 13 

B. (4) Had consciousness of smelling, kinaesthetic sensation. 

Y. (4) I got name, woodsmoke, and saw it, got tang of it 
but not first hand smell — the fact, rather, of what the author 
wanted me to sense. 

R. (4) Image of smell. 

E. (4) Smell damp wood smell. 

Ty. (4) Conscious of something acrid, pungent, delightfully 
woodsy, in the beginning. Choked by woodsmoke rather than 
smelled it. 

Auditory imagery, apart from the auditory-vocal-motor com- 
plex, was reported fairly freely and with certainty by two sub- 
jects only, R and E, but occasionally by nearly all. 

E. (7) 16 Heard the whirr of the waltz clock before it started 
even; (4) heard the wind. (Likely to hear everything she reads 
in a low-pitched woman's voice, not at all like her own.) 

R. (1) Heard the "jingle, jingle, jingle", also heard a Christ- 
mas carol, and the horses' hoofs on smooth pavement; fore- 
ground was sound, background sight; (4) auditory memory of 
the rhymes; (6. Asked to reproduce what he got from it.) "The 
wheat which crackles in his hand," "sea, bright blue and boom- 
ing lazily on the beach." 17 

S. (3) Heard intonation of voice during Frank's speech, al- 
most making sounds to myself. 

T. (1) When asked about the effect of the word "jingle" re- 
ported: The noise in this passage was not a jingle, it was 
clatter. I heard the horses' feet on pavements. 

B. (1) After the thought, I should be getting imagery here, 
got faint jingle off in corner. 

H. (4) Heard the birch log burning; you couldn't help it. 

The near auditory imagery reported is interesting. It seems 
to be a mixture of sensations, kinaesthetic and organic. 

S. (9) 18 No auditory images except that the word 'pealing' 
gave a slight feeling of tenseness in my head, as though I were 

16 See Appendix. 

17 It is, of course, quite possible that neither crackles nor booming repre- 
sents an actual sound heard, but they are at least typical of this auditory 
subject and quite different from any word used in the passage itself. 

18 See Appendix. 



H ESTHER E. SHAW 

straining to make a shrill sound. (7. read aloud by subject) 
"Sighs" and "chinks" by their sound suggested auditory images 
different from the sound of the words. I think the saying of 
the words acted as a spur. 

Y. (3) Didn't hear conversation, but got a ringing impression 
different from what I would have had from pantomine. 

H. (3) Got the feeling I would have had if I had heard the 
speeches, a sort of jolly, genial feeling of Frank, for instance; 
but can't sayl heard anything. 

Ty. (1) Noticed "color champed, as it were, like bits in the 
horses' teeth" as a desirably apt expression from literary work- 
man's point of view. Recalled the phrase, no auditory imagery. 

Sc. (1) For "champed," etc., thought of horse champing at a 
bit; thought of what it meant. ("Jingle, jingle, jingle, A. . . 
jingle," saw as it looked on page.) 

Passage 8, the moving of crossed knife edges, 19 which was ex- 
pected to bring out auditory imagery, was much more fruitful 
of kinaesthetic and organic, even of tactual, sensations. 

Ev. I squirmed. No sound. Not a matter of sound, a mat- 
ter of edges. 

B. I felt my teeth on edge. Did not hear it. 

By and E got only visual imagery for some moments. 

S. Physical reaction to grating, did not hear them grate. 

Sc. Sharp feeling, sort of circularly located in upper body. 
(Much delayed.) 

Rg. Got feeling of sharpness. 

H. Very uncomfortable. Persistence of shuddering and 
teeth on edge sensations for some time. 

R. Heard a swish of knives. Later, set teeth on edge faintly. 
(5) Vivid sensations of shivering. 

Ty. The blades scraped hideously. (Delayed.) 
In general those who got a visual image and were preoccupied 
with it, had a complex visual-motor process on their hands, 20 

19 See Appendix. 

20 E. Just saw the knives, they sort of glistened, the blades together. They 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 15 

and had no organic sensations unless at the close, much delayed. 
This reaction probably shows a visual preoccupation, resulting in 
part, perhaps, from James' phrasing, and in part from a less 
strong tendency toward organic reaction. (By, E, Ty, Sc, and 
S.) 

Motor sensations were apparently an habitual form of reac- 
tion to two subjects, R and B, and much of the effect of rhythm 
and cadence reported was declared to be motor, By, a good 
deal of a musician, going so far as to say that his memory of 
music was altogether of that sort, though he was keen at recog- 
nizing or identifying musical sound. Sc gets a great deal of 
motor combined with visual in dramatizing, 21 and uses gestures 
freely in giving introspections. 

R. (4) "Don't remember poetry because I read rhythm in- 
stead of the words, accent for structure rather than content." 
(Of the smoke) "Rather felt it going up, as if I were the 
smoke." (6) "Was the man." (Subject in his reproduction 
added a good deal, both in meaning and in content.) (8) Motor 
and tactual. R "immediately got in his place (the holder of 
the knives) and felt prick of knife." (5) Motor and tactual. 
Was moving rosary beads. 

Rg. (4) All I'm conscious of is the rhythm. I'm conscious 
of it as a rhythmic unit. 

E. (4) Knew it was Kipling though hadn't read it. "No- 
body else swings a line over like that third one." 

were moving supernaturally. Subject drew them as she said they looked, 
flats of blades together. 

S. Saw two silver table knives, then realized that they were steel and 
rather deliberately changed image to "kitchen" knives. 

Ty. Carried this adjustment through three stages: Two blades (picnic 
table knives) laid flat, sharp edges toward each other; blades suddenly 
turned so that sharp edges are in contact, blades being held stiffly upright, 
crossed in middle; blades begin to draw back and forth, turn thinner and 
sharper. 

Rg. Saw shiny edges plainly, and black handles. Got them parallel; 
scissor wise; then crossed keen edges at right angles. 

21 Sc. (3) Had all in position, but Beatrix was only one really imaged. 
Resented phrase "almost to the ground" as too strong. "I made her do it in 
a way of my own." (Motor, or possibly visual-motor.) 



16 ESTHER E. SHAW 

H. (4) Calls up a similar rhythm — Robert's Vagrant's Epi- 
taph. 

Ev. (4) Got a sort of tripping motion. 

Some of the sensations reported seem to be more properly de- 
scribed as kinaesthetic sensations of weight, strain, pressure, etc. 

B. (4) Kinaesthetic for "feet are turning." (2) Kinaesthetic 
aroused with "take the field," and "transport his army," a cer- 
tain feeling of strain as if I were picking them up and trans- 
porting them. 

Ty- (3) I stood squeezed up against the wall. 

Feelings like the following are hard to classify, but seem to 
those experiencing them to have an imaginal or sensational con- 
tent. 

E. (1) Felt as I feel sometimes in a crowd. (4) Felt Es- 
mond (his presence). (7) Felt Markheim's strained mood. 

S. (4) I was principally conscious of a thrill or a lure, sug- 
gesting at once Walt Whitman, the Open Road feeling. I think 
the words "Follow" and "turning" gave the lure feeling, although 
they were not in mind at the time. (Of a passage from James) : 
Recognized passage was from James and had "last year Vassar" 
feeling, to some extent a feeling of locality. I was somewhere 
off to the left. (Very typical.) 

B. (1) Conscious of effort. (2a) The word "king" gave a 
feeling of nobility. 

Ty. (8) Felt as if I were in danger of getting between them 
(the knife blades). (3) Impression of elderly stout gentleman 
— of dignity and bulkiness. 

Rg. (4) Underlying association of White Mts. got by means 
of fireplace in our cottage. 

Very often the subject was unable to analyze his mental con- 
tent but reported something very definitely there. The word un- 
analyzable, used to describe mental content, indicates this in- 
ability on the part of the subject to analyze, to carry introspec- 
tion further. 

Ty. (4) Disappointment — when found that they were to leave 
for camps. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 17 

Sc. (3) Resented a phrase employed. (Because it did not fit 
his own procedure.) 

H. (4) Disappointed in the end. 

Rg. (4) Conscious of emotional atmosphere. 

Sc. (4) Suggested Longfellow. Afterwards said it "savoured 
of Hiawatha." 

E. Very sensitive to mood in all cases. 

S. (4) Things mentioned bring a feeling without the inter- 
position of any image. 

Y. (4) I knew the stanza took form of questions at the be- 
ginning and a command at the end. 

Ev. (1) Thought of mixed figure in wheel and pool without 
having images of either — or of anything else. I think I knew 
what the words meant — didn't stop over to get image. (Ex- 
planation of statement that he "had an idea what the streets 
were like.") Often recognize that thing is capable of being in- 
terpreted without interpreting it. (4) Got significance of words, 
no visual imagery. 

B. (3) Indistinct feeling of female spectator at one side. 

Ty. (4) Felt it a desirably apt expression from literary work- 
man's point of view. 

Sc. (4) Just got idea of last two lines, no imagery. 

By. (2) Got a very definite impression of McClellan's char- 
acter; got significance rather than events. 

Rg. (2) Called up in mind a series of articles on Confeder- 
ate and other generals running in Atlantic last year. Conscious 
of situation at time of reading. No analyzable imagery, except 
later of a printed page, but think that came during attempt to 
analyze. 

Verbal imagery in this test was not a primary consideration, 
and, as usual, where auditory-vocal-motor occurred it was diffi- 
cult to discriminate between centrally aroused sensations and 
peripherally aroused or articulatory. 22 Reading a passage silent- 
ly gave much better results for some than for others, especially 

22 So far as any distinction can be made the phrase auditory- vocal-motor 
is used in this paper to indicate the centrally aroused, and articulatory to 
indicate the peripherally aroused sensations. 



18 ESTHER E. SHAW 

good for Ev, Ty, and Y. H and B were particularly successful 
in recalling the stanza (4) as compared with the prose (2). Y 
recalled the words of the stanza fairly well, but with almost no 
sense of their rhythm. 

Number of details recalled from (2). 

1st group: Y. 27 (familiar with territory), Ev. 19, Ty. 17. 

2nd group: Sc. 14, E. 14, Rg. 14, S. 14, H. 13. 

3rd group: By. 12, B. 11, T. 9, R. 9, By and R "not interested 
in material." 

Words recalled from (4). 

1st group: Ty. 31, Sc. 31, H. 31. 23 

2nd group: B. 26, Y. 21 (remembers poetry as picture), Rg. 
21 ("All I'm conscious of is rhythm."). 

3rd group: E. 17, Ev. 15, R. 7; no visual imagery reported. 

Several subjects reported visual- verbal in recall, especially in 
the case of proper names or other noticeably printed words. Sc 
(2) had visual-verbal imagery of the opening phrase, 'Through- 
out the winter of 1861-62,' and of 'maneuver.' He remembers 
vaguely how the names of the four rivers looked. 

The criticism of I that grows most clearly out of the intro- 
spections is that the reading is either undirected — purposeless — 
or motivated unnaturally. The results are, therefore, as typical 
reading results, not very trustworthy. The possibility of certain 
imagery's appearing and the tendency of other imagery not to 
appear in connection with words are, however, satisfactorily 
shown. The least flexible types are E, Y, and T, visual-concrete, 
and Rg visual and motor; the most flexible, Sc, Ty, and By, 
using visual-concrete and vocal-motor principally. 

II 24 . Spelling backwards, and pronouncing from words spelled 
backwards, given to bring out visualizing power. 

Spelling backwards, orally, grouped the subjects roughly into 
two classes, a class that used visual imagery a good deal, and a 

23 H said "dear, dear, dear," while writing rapidly. Did not seem to be in 
the least an inhibition. Points probably to verbal imagery unaccompanied by 
articulation. 

24 See Appendix. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 19 

class that used it little if at all. Of the visuals Ty, Sc, By, and 
T use the method effectively, making high records in time and 
correctness ; S uses a mixed visualizing and pronouncing method 
■ — she wanted a blank space before her to visualize upon — and has 
a fairly good record; Y and E make slow times, ranking 9 and 
1 1 in the list, and are poor spellers here as elsewhere. Y "sees 
the general shape of the word before beginning to spell it, but the 
distinct image of the letters only after spelling them out." E 
wrote the words on a blackboard a syllable at a time and became 
very much confused. Of the articulatory or motor type, R has 
an average time record and for writing is perfectly correct; H, 
who has a time record corresponding to that of the visuals, says 
she has "a feeling of dashing at the words to set them running 
backwards on their own wheels, if you stop, the motion is gone 
and everything is lost" (a process apparently similar to Sc's). 
Ev describes his method as phonetic and is constantly troubled by 
a sense that the process is wrong. B spells the word forward 
several times, and has, probably consequently, a very slow time, 
although the fact that she considers herself a poor speller, and is, 
undoubtedly contributes. As to visual imagery she reports, "when 
I look at a visual image of a word it isn't there." Spelling back- 
wards in writing adds very little to the oral results. The objective 
results as to time are almost exactly similar. T is bothered by 
the sight of what she has written — "they got sort of upside down 
in my mind and I can't read backwards from them" — and loses 
four places. Rg falls from 16.5" to 33"; she reports it "much 
harder" and covers written portion with her hand. R, who writes 
from right to left, is aided, and steps up three places. The per 
cent of words spelled correctly rises considerably, 10% ; the 
great improvement is with the motors, and the great fall (30% 
B) is also motor. 

Pronouncing from words spelled backwards gave the same 
rough grouping as the preceding test. E varied very much, her 
visual method giving quick times with short words, and very long 
times with long ones; with two letters per second her time im- 
proved markedly, apparently through the appearance of auditory 



ESTHER E. SHAW 
Table a. 





Spelling backward. Time 


records for 


right spellings. 




Oral 




Written 


Type 


Dject 


Av. time 


Per cent 


Per cent 






in seconds 


right 


right 




Sc 


7.6 


55 


100 


Visual and vocal-motor. 


Ty 


9-2 


80 


88 


Visual. 


By 


13-5 


80 


90 


Visual. 


H 


15-8 


50 


100 


Vocal-motor. 


S 


16.4 


60 


50 


Mixed, visual and vocal- 
motor. 


Rg 


16.5 


40 


80 


Mixed, visual and vocal- 
motor. 


T 


16.7 


80 


70 


Visual. 


R 


20.2 


7o 


100 


Vocal-motor. 


Ev 


21 


60 


5o 


Vocal-motor. 


Y 


26 


80 


60 


Mixed — emphasis visual. 
Poor speller. 


B 


27.2 


80 


50 


Vocal-motor. Poor 
speller. 


E 


59-5 


40 


60 


Visual, some vocal- 
motor. Poor speller. 



Average 15.8 64.5 74.8 

I (without E) 
20.8 
(with E) 

aid. Y reports: "When I heard the letters I saw them upside 
down, tried to hold them all in mind and then turn the paper 
ground (on which they were written) around so that the word 
would be in normal position"; with one letter per second this 
process, though complicated, did not seem very difficult, with two 
letters per second, "guessed more." Of rudimentary Y reports: 
"Tried to see on blackboard right to left. Did not show till Miss 

S had finished spelling it. When she said d-u-r rud appeared 

on the board, and quite a way from it, giving the idea that the 
word was a long one, then came ary. Rudimentary then popped 
in. Even when middle letters are blurred you know whether they 
fit or not." 25 By reports that some peculiar combination of con- 
sonants and vowels identified nearly every word; when letters 
came two per second "there was usually nothing conscious but a 
guess." S reports a still more mixed method, — "In some cases I 
had to respell a syllable backwards. The sound ran in my head 
so that I could." Sc reports that he sees the word, knows how 

25 Good spellers appear to have paid more attention to words as groups of 
letters. Compare By and Y. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 21 

big it is, how many letters there are in it, and everything like that, 
"builds it up objectively, out in front," but he can not tell 
whether it is in print or writing. 

B, of the vocal-motor group, reports that after trying several 
methods unsuccessfully she "reversed in some way not visual." 
Ev says there was a good deal of guessing in his results ; "When 
the word ends I can think back over the last three or four letters 
and turn them around." R learned to spell the word backwards, 
usually from one spelling, lip-motor, and then was "disinclined 
to work out the word as I know I have it there for the working" ; 
his times in consequence are long. In general, the advantage in 
objective results goes to the good guessers. Sc and Ty both 
reported that they often knew the word before I finished; Sc 
{Belgium) "wanted to cut in at l." 

Table b. 

Pronouncing from words spelled backwards. Time record of right 

pronunciations. 

Av. time in sees. Av. time in sees. 



jects 


1 letter per sec. 


2 letters per sec 


Type 


Ty 


9 


8.5 


Mixed, auditory -vocal - motor 
and visual. Guesses. 


Sc 


9-5 


10.4 


Mixed, auditory -vocal - motor 
and visual. Guesses. 


By 


10.9 


16.8 


Visual. Guesses. 


S 


16.8 


10.7 


Mixed, auditory-vocal-motor 
and some visual. Guesses. 


T 


17.7 


20.9 


Visual. 


B 


22.9 


24 


Vocal-motor. 


Y 


25.5 


15-3 


Visual. Guesses (2 per second) . 


Rg 


26 


38 


Visual (many spellings). 


H 


34-5 


S3 


Vocal-motor. 
Wrong guesses. 


Ev 


36.7 


29 


Vocal-motor. First step slow, 
then guesses. 


E 


39-3 


25-5 


Visual. Improvement in 2 per 
second due to auditory aids. 


R 


80.5 


13.3 


Vocal-motor, with articulation. 
Passivity after first step. 



Individual differences, of temperament largely, enter into the 
results in the speeding up process of spelling two letters per 
second ; some for instance, "like to take a chance," others find it 
hard to guess. 

III. 26 This experiment in the learning of arrangements of 

26 See Appendix. 



22 ESTHER E. SHAW 

numbers, letters and so forth, has been much used by investiga- 
tors to bring out visual factors. So far as easily analyzable pro- 
cesses are concerned, however, the method followed by most of 
the subjects of this investigation is pronouncing, articulatory; it 
is usually aided by various associative processes exceedingly 
difficult to analyze into any definite imaginal form. Our habitual 
use of an articulatory or pronouncing method for all memorizing 
of word and letter material seriously affects the value of the test 
for visual imagery ; an individual who uses visual images freely, 
even visual-verbal when driven to it as in II, might use vocal- 
motor here from sheer habit. The associative processes, men- 
tioned above, seem in many cases to play the important role in 
memorizing. The subject is not aware of either visual or vocal- 
motor elements, cannot tell how he learns, learns it "as a dia- 
gram," is "aware of relations." That is, these results bear out 
those of T. V. Moore, 27 in The Process of Abstraction, where 
he says : "besides the visual image there is something else which 
is a powerful aid to memory. And this is a more or less complete 
mental analysis of the figures, an analysis which it is utterly un- 
necessary for the subject to put in words. . . .And while the two 
may go hand in hand, they need not; and it is possible to mem- 
orize by either method." Again: "It is much easier to memorize 
by analysis to the exclusion of imagery than vice versa." I do 
not feel justified, however, in saying that this learning "by asso- 
ciation" takes place "to the exclusion of imagery." Motor im- 
agery is extremely obscure and difficult to detect, and imagery- 
may be so reduced, so fragmentary, so complex in its combina- 
tions, that the subject is unable to analyze his mental content and 
becomes confused. The test might prove more valuable in show- 
ing those who make ready use of associations and relations than 
for anything else. 

Measured by their success in learning the squares, subjects 
rank as follows. 

27 Moore, T. V., The Process of Abstraction, pp. 140-141. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



23 



Memory — Roman and Arabic numerals, letters, etc. 



lubject 


6 item tests 
Av. no. recalls 


9 item tests 
Av. no. recalls 


B 


6 


7 


By 
Ty 


6 

5-5 


6.66 
7-3 


A 
Rg 


5 
5 


5-2 

4.66 


S 


4-5 


5 


Sc 


4-5 


6 


R 


4-5 


5-33 


Ev 
T 


4-5 

4-5 


4.66 
5-66 


E 
H 


4-5 
3-5 


4.66 
5-25 



4-33 



Method of learning 

Articulatory, visual associa- 
tions. 

Articulatory, probably mixed. 

Articulatory, schematic rela- 
tions. 

Visual-motor. 

Articulatory, some visual, mean- 
ingful combinations. 

Articulatory, localization (vis- 
ual-motor) associations. 

Articulatory, visual. Persever- 
ation in recall. 

Articulatory, non-visual. Mo- 
tor relations. 

Articulatory and visual. 

Articulatory, visual-motor 
lines; visual relations for g 
items. 

Articulatory and visual. 

Articulatory and visual, mean- 
ingful combinations. 

Articulatory and visual. 



Those who used an articulatory method helped out by visual — 
a rather clumsy and detailed use of imagery, perhaps — seem 
rather more likely to come out badly in the objective results than 
those who used less visual and depended upon 'schemes' and other 
associative aids. With six items the results seem to show three 
distinct levels of ability to learn this material. With nine items 
this grouping, after the first two names, seems to disappear. Ty 
and H show the greatest improvement, T improves in the second 
test, and reports that the improvement is due to use of visual rela- 
tionships. H shows great variation, from a perfect test with nine 
items, to three accurately placed, and four correct but wrongly 
placed in a similar set. She remarked in the second instance, 
"Why, there's nothing there to say !" From which it may be in- 
ferred that her success in the first instance was due to her hitting 
upon a meaningful combination to repeat. Those who showed 
themselves capable of using visual imagery here are those who 
have used it in other tests, except that By does not report visual 
imagery here and does in all the preceding tests. 

It seems probable from the introspections of III that the ar- 
ticulatory or pronouncing method of learning may give rise in 
the recall — in reproducing the diagram — to vocal-motor imagery. 



24 ESTHER E. SHAW 

IV. 28 Learning lists of words that sound alike but are spelled 
differently would, if anything, it seems, bring out any disposition 
on the part of the subject to learn this kind of material visually. 
From the results, however, it would appear that there is very little 
tendency to use a visual-verbal method in learning words; that, 
on the contrary, the habit of learning by a vocal-motor method is 
too strong to be overcome by the exigencies of the situation. The 
subjects all depended primarily on that method, though using 
visual images, sense combinations and other associations as 
aids. The results show marked differences in ability to get 
such material, however. Of the three who succeeded 
fairly well, B reports, "used visual as a check"; S, "made 
sense. In b. got lines i and 2 by association, just looked at 
3 (all were right), figured what possibilities were left. Had 
fairly definite image of heir. In c. got help from visual"; 
By reports for c, "got first three by sense clause, corrected list 
by visual, the last was deduced." It would seem evident that all 
three used visual imagery to some extent, being much more con- 
scious of a visual preoccupation in recall than in learning; all 
three used associations, and two "deduced." 

Number of words recalled from lists of nine each. 
Subjects B S By E R Ev H T Ty Sc Rg 

Test a. 75723102333 

Test b. 69554446645 

Test c. 97943425 97 

Average 7.3 7 7 3.6 3.3 3 2 4.3 4.5 5.3 5 

The middle group, T, Ty, Sc, and Rg all report some visual 
imagery. Rg improves her method somewhat; for b., "tried to 
hold together the sequence in sound with the difference in spell- 
ing"; for c. "used meanings." Sc reports of a., "had great deal 
of difficulty organizing" ; of b., "Learned by saying columns, tried 
to get some way to group, sure 1 of column 3 began with y, re- 
membered how it looked" ; of c, "Got sense out of first column, 
visual helped, had it cold both ways. Could see 1 . Put meanings 
(see T) into second column as went along. Thought of sow 
as pronounced sow. Knew visually that aye came last." It 

28 See Appendix. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 25 

seemed to the subject that he used both visual and articulatory all 
the time ; his method improved. Ty reports for a : "skipped all 
about, paid no attention to order, tried to place by sound I guess. 
Remembered the first, the last, and the first of the second column 
— salient visual positions" ; for b. "learned the sets of three and 
then looked to see where they came, learned first column, first 
word of second and third, and last of third." T tried a. by 
getting variations of order, vocal-motor; b. was learned "by 
saying the words over and by looking at them — took meanings 
into consideration, that is, tried to put together spelling and 
meaning and remember by the meaning the column it went in." 
During introspection the subject recalled that the first word in 
the middle column of three was rays instead of raze, "had a 
remembrance of the way your y looked as it came down there." 
For c, the subject made sentences and visualized, and didn't 
really get to the last column. I take it that the suggestion of sen- 
tences acted as a deterrent. On the whole, some degree of visual 
activity seems to be necessary to even a moderate degree of 
success. 

E reports a good deal of visual: For a: "tried saying in 
order written, tried to get the three different kinds of sent by 
the way they looked." In recall, "I saw cent written and ascent. 
Saw the full .? in scent and it suggested ascent. For b : "tried to 
remember the sound, tried to visualize the forms." In recall, 
"Heard them, in a different voice. Saw a woolly lamb associated 
with ewe, saw a pear on a tree in a garden, kept seeing pair in 
other places, hazy." The confusion of imagery, including a good 
deal of visual-concrete, may account for her comparative lack of 
success. This subject had trouble in concentrating on the task, not 
only here but elsewhere. B reports a purely articulatory method. 
Ev "couldn't do it," "meanings funny, may have inhibited, no 
visual." H learned "by saying" ; she was much confused. 

V. 29 The first part of V consisted of making lists of rhyming 
words, as many as possible to a minute; the test was planned to 
bring out auditory-vocal-motor factors. 

29 See Appendix. 



26 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Table A. 

Rhyme 

words. Ty Y S B By R H Ev T E A Sc Rg Av. 

home 5 6+lw* 4+Iw 6 8+lw 7 8+lw 6677 5+5w 6.25 

speak 13 6 10 6 12 10-f-lw 99 10 5 8 9 9 8.9 

case 95 9 4 12 8 9 12 677 10 7 8 

hope 6 6 87 8 10 6 6 6 10 11 7.6 

low 16 12+3W 12 11 11 13 15 14 10 10 10 15 9 12 

Av. 12.6 6.8 9.25 6.2 9.8 9.2 9.6 10.6 7.6 6.8 7.4 10.2 8.2 



* w = wrong. 
First group : Ev, Sc, Ty. 
Second group : H, By, R, S, Rg. 
Third eroiin : A. T. E. Y. B. 



oeconu group : n, r>y, is., o, 
Third group : A, T, E, Y, B. 

The first objection to the grouping from the objective results 
that rises to the investigator's mind concerns E, who is, however, 
likely to rank lower than might be expected on account of general 
hesitancy and nervousness, and lack of close attention. The 
matter is complicated by her being a verse maker and more 
than ordinarily sensitive and effective in the matter of rhymes. 
Y, also, though no rhymer, is a teacher of English and might 
reasonably be expected to stand well in such a test. There is one 
factor brought out in the introspections of both that may influ- 
ence their results, by distracting the attention somewhat from the 
task, and by increasing the time of the individual words. 

Y. (Home) "As the words came to me I had a rather vague 
picture, not so much of the word as of what the word stood for. 
This was especially true of Rome, where I saw only the capital 
R, but had a distinct picture of the map of Italy." (Speak) "With 
all there was a background, an image made up partly of the way 
the word looked, partly, and more markedly I think, of occasions 
for which the word stood. In meek I had a general shifting pic- 
ture of bowed heads. With the last three words came quite dis- 
tinct pictures of the things for which the words stand, a plump 
cheek against a background of nothing, a generalized picture of 
a queer looking person, a freak, and the head — profile — of a bird, 
something like an eagle, for beak." (Hope) "All have more or 
less of a halo." 

E. (Home) Roam. — saw tramp; dome — "saw top of cathedral 
in Florence" ; tome — "saw great big book with heavy covers, saw 
gilt on the leather." (Speak) meek — "very gentle looking per- 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 27 

son's mouth." (Hope) mope — "saw relaxed figure"; soap — 
"heaps of bars of ivory soap." Subject checked as colorless such 
words as go, know, cope. 

B, who from her vocal-motor tendency might be expected not 
to come at the bottom of the list, reports that many nonsense 
syllables came up (she was a laboratory psychologist and familiar 
with them) and inhibited the sense words, and that her process 
was purely articulatory. 

Of the three who stood highest, Ty reports a little visual con- 
crete imagery, but certainly not enough to interfere with the 
process, as in the cases of Y and E. Ev reports "a purely rhym- 
ing process," and Sc much the same thing. Sc used "certain 
likely consonants with the ending," after the words began to come 
slowly, and in the case of the last word (low) worked with ow 
for a long time, a visual suggestion from low. 

Of the second group, By reports that he noticed no auditory 
or visual images, "words come very quickly and crowd each 
other out"; H thinks her rhyming is very largely auditory, 
"heard e(a)k much more clearly than on{e) [Letters in paren- 
theses silent], the sound is sharper." H also gets many asso- 
ciations with words : beak — "bird, neither word nor concrete 
visual image, just general idea of bird with emphasis on 
beak" : mace — feeling of king, also of spice — "impression of 
shelf where we keep our spices"; Wace — "associations with 
the beginnings of English literature, with a blue book by Mr. 
Schofield, lower left hand page, a class in English litera- 
ture four years ago, and the look of the room and the feeling of 
teaching that class, all together and very vague." Words "have 
meaningful air even when nothing definite can be introspected." 
With R, the visual-concrete imagery accompanying the words 
died out as the process became more practised, and showed at all 
times a tendency to come up only when there was a hesitation of 
some kind: gnome — "saw one, a little fellow walking around"; 
leek — "hesitated over spelling and saw onion, long green stalks." 
His list for low was unusual in that it included five words like 
yellow. In discussing these words he let slip the remark that he 
saw the ow. T apparently used visual imagery with auditory- 



28 ESTHER E. SHAW 

vocal-motor, the slow method of one unused to rhyming. Rg 
had five wrong in the first set; "6 sound caught me and I 
couldn't help myself." There was other evidence of auditory 
imagery: "Heard the words, sort Of said them to myself, but 
with your intonation." For hope she got such words as micro- 
scope, antelope, cantalope, and for low, window, elbow, meadow; 
etc. ; "There is a flash almost as if you saw them, all at once, 
but you don't see them." These words certainly come more from 
visual similarity of form than from rhyme in the strict sense; 
are dependent, that is, on sight rather than on sound. 30 

The second part of V was designed to bring out visual-verbal, 
and consisted of finding as many words as possible in a minute 
that should have the same ending as a given word. The results 

follow. 

Table B. 
B By R 

6 n+lw* io 
3 7 8 

5+3W ii 8+1 w 

8 io o-(-lw 

7 15 12 
5-8 ii 94 

* w = wrong. 

First group: By, Ty, Ev, R. 
Second group : A, Sc, H, T. 
Third group : Rg, Y, E, B, S. 

E's introspections show that improvement followed upon the 
adoption of a visual instead of a rhyming method. T, how- 
ever, got longer lists with a rhyming method. Of the first group 
all used a mixed method, auditory-vocal-motor and visual ; audi- 
tory marked for R, visual used by By and Ev only as test, 
visual method reported by Ty as most important. A, Sc, H, 
and T all used a visual method supplemented by articulatory. 
Of the third group B seems unable to use visual, uses articula- 
tory rather than rhyming, even as a test; E found her ability to 
visualize interfered with by a rhyming habit; Y, using sound 
tested by visual — lack here as elsewhere, of vocal-motor — makes 

30 Matthews, Brander, A Study of Versification, p. 49. "Rime in English 
is an identity of the vowel sound in the last long foot and in all the sounds 
that follow it." 



Ending 


Ty 


Y 


S 


-one 


9 


4 


3 


-ough 


8 


6 


4 


-ose 




7 


5 


-are 


12+lw 


6+3W 


8 


-ine 




7+lw 




Av. 


9.6 


6 


5 



H 


Ev 


•T 


E A 


Sc 


Rg 


Av. 


5 


8 


3 


3 10 


9 


10 


7- 


7 


5 


7 


3 6 


7 


4 


5-77 


9 


11 


7 


7 8 


8 


2 


7-3 


11 


11+lw 


12 


10 




8 


9-5 


9 


16 


10 9+lw 12 




9 


10.6 


8.2 


10.2 


7-8 


6.4 9 


8 


6.6 





FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 29 

a slow and faulty record; S uses a rhyming- method, interrupted 
by a slow visual. There is evidence of visual in some of Rg's 
words — at least of a method not rhyming. For ough she "could- 
n't get away from the sound of uff" ; and had long a sound for 
&ue. In the case of ose, she "couldn't seem to focus attention on 
either sound or form." 

The third part of V, in which words are to be given for a 
particular ending and arranged in groups according to sound, 
gives results that are extremely difficult to interpret. There 
seems to be a premium on a mixed method, where both visual 
and rhyming (auditory-vocal-motor) factors are present. We 
should expect to find By, Sc, and Ev in the lead, and do; R, 
H, A, and T following. Ty is unexpectedly in the last group; 
the trouble is a lack of flexibility somewhere, possibly a visual 
preoccupation, followed by a rhyming; she wants to rhyme. 
There seems to be a real difficulty in discrimination here with 
both Ty and E, both of whom are delicate and effective verse 
makers, with strong tendencies toward concrete visualizing. Rg 
also shows lack of flexibility here. 

In the whole test, those not concerned in daily practice with 
words (A, T, B, R, Rg) do not come in the first five; but S, 
Y, and E who are concerned with words do come in the last 
five, S comparatively non-imaginal, Y and E very imaginal. 

VI. 31 The learning of words pronounced differently but 
spelled alike would seem to require auditory or vocal-motor 
imagery or both if any degree of success is to be attained. As- 
sociations and generalizations were, however, used successfully, 
and in the cases of Y and E at least, concrete visual representa- 
tion of their meanings helped to hold the words in the right 
order. Y reports, for a perfect score, "When I went over the 
list I actually saw the things they stood for and I think that 
helped. Saw a dove. Saw cliff and water for dove. Bow was 
bow of boat. A (ye) and (a)y(e) never seem really to look alike 
[Letters in parentheses silent] , the look of the thing they stand 
for is different, A (ye) is round! and full, lighter in color, 

31 Appendix. 



30 ESTHER E. SHAW 

(A)y(e) is sharp, dark, concentrated." E, six out of nine, 
"I tried to remember by forming a picture." T associated 
unnd, bass (Base Lake), row, accompanied by some visual-con- 
crete imagery, and recalled row in consequence. Sc "Tried to 
remember pronunciation by remembering meaning." Auditory 
imagery appeared clearly with Y, T, E, and S. Y "remem- 
bered there were soft sounds at beginning, and hard and more 
disagreeable at end, heard dove and bow plainly." In the first 
set E had five out of nine correct, and two more vowels correct, 
said she remembered how they sounded. B was apparently 
vocal-motor, rather than auditory, and had no visual imagery. 
She thinks the use of her fingers as she listened gave her motor 
associations that kept the words in order. In the second test 
she reports, "For the most part I thought of them (the subjects 
held an unmarked list of words) before you pronounced them, 
and remembered in most cases from the fact that you did not 
give the pronunciation I had in mind." Apparently she remem- 
bered, therefore, from her own articulatory imagery, rather than 
from auditory impressions from my reading. 

Method of learning 

Motor, largely vocal-motor. 

Auditory and visual-concrete principally. 

Auditory- vocal-motor. 

Auditory? Visual, both concrete and verbal. 

Says no auditory. Vocal-motor and articula- 
tory? 

Probably auditory-vocal-motor and meanings. 

Auditory-vocal-motor. Some associations and 
deductions. 

Very different methods seem to work successfully. The experi- 
ment gives clear introspections of method, rather than trust- 
worthy objective results. 

VII. 32 Miss Fernald made use of reports on pictures for test- 
ing the presence of concrete visual imagery; she concludes that 
the absence of such imagery furnished rather satisfactory evi- 
dence of some degree of weakness in it. Reports on cards ex- 
posed, as Miss Fernald exposed hers, for ten seconds, led me to 

32 Appendix. 



bjects 


ist test 


2nd 


B 


6 


9 


Y 


5 


9 


S 


6 


6 


E 


5 


6 


Ev 


3 


5 


Sc 


6 


7 


T 


4 


7 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 31 

think that the long exposure gave time for the development of 
a naming process that might obscure the visual elements; and 
that if I wished to discover how much could be retained without 
such help I should have to make a much shorter exposure. These 
results are, therefore, based on 2", 10" and some 4" exposures, 
whose relative value will be discussed at a later point. If the 
visual types could be determined by proficiency in this experi- 
ment the subjects would be rated as follows, visuals of course 
leading. Subjects were not, however, urged to write exhaustive 
accounts of detail, as it was feared that they might be led into 
mechanical and unnatural methods of learning. 



Method 

Visual (visual-motor). Some 
verbal. 

Visual, and verbal in 10". 

Visual (and motor). 

Verbal and visual (visual- 
motor) . 

Visual. Some verbal. 

Visual. Some verbal, esp. 10". 

Visual. Verbal in 10". Motor. 

Visual-motor. Verbal. Associa- 
tions. 

Visual. Verbal in 10". Asso- 
ciations and relations. 

Schematic (visual) . Verbal. 
Motor. 

Visual. 

■Visual. Motor. 

Verbal (esp. 10") Visual-mo- 
tor. Meanings. 
* Figures in parenthesis based on two records only. 

When the method is considered, however, it is seen that though 
the highest places are taken by subjects who use a largely visual 
method, some of the lowest places, especially for 2" exposure, 
are also held by visuals (E, T). On the other hand, it is note- 
worthy that those who make a marked advance, both absolutely 
and relatively, with an increased time included these same indi- 
viduals. These per cent results for 10" are apparently a pretty 
good indication of visualizing power, and are borne out very 
well by the previous tests except that R attained his results by 



Subj 


Absolute 
No. of Details 


% 


of Details 




2" 


4" 


10" 


2" 


4" 


10 


Ty 


14-3 


(12-5)* 


18.3 


65 


(58) 


67 


Sc 

Y 

A 


12.6 

12 

II-5 


14 
14-5 


17 

14.6 

10 


61 
58 

56 


64-5 


61 
61 
46 


By 
Rg 
H 

S 


10.7 

10 
97 
97 


(12.5) 


17 
14 

12-5 

10.3 


52 
50 
47-5 
47 


(58) 


7i 
50 
47 
39 


Ev 


87 




12 


42.5 




47 


R 


87 


12 


13-8 


42.5 


5i 


58 


E 
T 
B 


87 
8.6 
7-6 


13-3 


14-3 

11.7 
12.7 


42.5 

4i 

37 


5i 


66 
5i 
47 



32 ESTHER E. SHAW 

a very mixed method, and that, from the introspections, the 
visual T would be expected to rank higher. 

Now as to the determination of these methods of learning and 
recalling. 

In the examination of visual characters the first thing done 
was to study the color imagery reported. Subjects varied a 
good deal in this respect. Some are much preoccupied with 
color and with light and shade — H, By, Ty, Ev, E. Ty: "A 
night scene, dark blue sky. Stars, snow on ground and on post. 
Pleasant contrast in color in that lighted doorway — very green 
Christmas tree against reddish orange interior. In houses on 
right pleasant contrast, warm lights, kind of vermilion, in dark 
blue or green houses." Some remember the colors they see with 
great accuracy, as T; some see in recall more vivid colors than 
are in the card, as Sc and B; others fainter as Ev, who after 
delayed recall reports that when he sees cards again he finds colors 
brighter than he remembered them. Often colors are reported 
that are not there at all; H particularly, recalling a black and 
white photograph of a garden, saw "Hollyhocks of glowing col- 
ors, reds and pinks, bees humming* in them, under hot sun,'' and 
R, also recalling a black and white print, reports "Sky a sort 
of yellowish blue." Rg pays a great deal of attention to color 
in her reports, though it is often wrong. Ty gets vivid colors; 
when they are wrong, as often happens, the brightnesses seem to 
be correct — the color values are right. Some seem to be confused 
by color and do not try to remember it, 33 colors are right but 
apparently floating, loose. 34 Some of the color confusion appears 
to rise from association; intensification of color and finding it 
where there is none, from a sort of getting into the picture — a 
process which seems to involve motor imagery. A makes many 
errors in colors, due to dependence on naming and association, 
and probably also to lack of good color imagery. With S color is 

33 R. "Colors mixed me up." "A lot of colors, reds and blues etc., didn't 
bother with it." 

34 S. (Japanese scene) "Confused picture of yellow and other colors 
rather unusual in buildings, can't name any color surely but yellow though — 
curving lines of bright yellow stand out distinctly." 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 33 

merely a secondary consideration, and so probably a weak image. 
In general, those who have seemed highly visual in other ways 
are good at color. Sc is not so good at color as might be ex- 
pected from the objective results; 35 B is rather better but reports 
"not much color in 2" exposures." It is difficult to know whether 
to class a tendency to intensify color and to see it where it has not 
been as an indication of good color memory or the reverse; it 
certainly indicates the presence of color imagery, and perhaps a 
weakness in holding visually presented factors grouped. T, who 
seems pretty purely visual, is perhaps the most accurate in her 
color reports; she is habituated to making fine color discrimina- 
tions in scientific work. Grouped roughly as to color imagery: 
H, Ty, T, Ev; By, E, Y, Sc; Rg, B; R, A. 

There is a great deal of variation, too, in the distinctness and 
accuracy of visual imagery. S affords as good an illustration 
as any of lack of distinctness or order in the image. 

S. (io // exposures.) Street scene: "Got general picture when 
trying to write down, white and black dots (hats, shirts, etc.) 
dancing or floating around during reproduction." 

Animated street scene: "Street empty." 

Street fair: "Visual images danced around." "Child could 
go as well in one place as another." 

There was, however, considerable difference with this subject 
between 2" and 10" exposures. For 2" times, she reports that 
she "saw pictures quite plainly when recalled, pretty well as a 
whole." The explanation for this I should find partly in a real 
lack in definiteness in visual images, an ability that could easily 
be overtaxed, and partly in the effect of the ever present asso- 
ciations in the 10" exposures for which there is no opportunity 
in the 2". The following example will bring out this last point 
as well as the others. 

(10" exposure.) View of Washington apple picking scene. 
"Saw trees and people in general way — conscious of reds and 
yellows. Saw man and said to myself 'picking cherries/ thought 
of a cherry picking I had witnessed (vague visual image of 

35 Sc says he can match colors well but has difficulty in remembering the 
names. He probably neglects color names. 



34 ESTHER E. SHAW 

tree, but more a half motor or locality consciousness of being 
somewhere else — to the right — where I had told yesterday about 
this experience, locality not accurate). Then looked to see if 
they were cherries, saw that they were too large and said to 
myself 'tomatoes' ... had a locality sense of apple picking in 
Oregon. Deliberately counted people, noted sizes and order. In 
recall : the general mass was visual — used eye motor. Saw dia- 
gram of trees and people — sometimes three, sometimes four." 

At the other extreme of definiteness : 

Y reports that she "sees pictures perfectly." 36 

R reports that he can "call up and see as vividly as he wants 
to." 

T. Japanese scene — "pine trees, conifers, mostly green. 
Trunks of two at entrance brown, sunlight striking them from 
above at right. Spot of brown on needles of left center tree. 
Couple of yellow green splotches on the green trees. ..." 

Ev. (Mountain range. In sepia.) A mountain in the back- 
ground. The side that slopes toward the left foreground 
slightly cut up by gullies. Toward the top the mountain is 
lighter, perhaps from bared rocks or snow, and this lighter part 
extends down in streaks, emphasizing the formation before 
spoken of. In the foreground several trees; in particular one 
to the left center, whose branches sweep toward the left as if 
the prevailing winds had been in that direction. At the right 
edge of the picture the branches of another tree — or trees — ex- 
tend into the picture as if influenced by the same prevailing winds. 
A little back of these trees is some sort of a dark plot (right 

36 There is not in these recalls of picture postals any such "revival of 
personal attitude and emotional value" as Woodworth mentions as alone 
"enough to create a strong atmosphere of reality." (Woodworth, R. S., 
A Revision of Imageless Thought, p. 16) Y's introspections show very little 
or no feeling, the presence of which, under these conditions, usually involves 
the revival of a picture much more changed by associations than any of Y's. 
I have found a small number of observant people, outside my subjects, who 
feel sure that their recalls are as vivid as the original experience, though I 
suppose none of them would claim the presence of much if any content not 
noted — paid attention to — at the time of observation. The lack of such addi- 
tion would not, however, prevent the recall's being as vivid as the original 
experience. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 35 

center) that I could not make out. (Direction — Write a descrip- 
tion. ) 

By. (Gliickliches Neujahr. 10") "Gliickliches Neujahr" is 
printed in large black German type about an inch and a half 
from the bottom of the card on the right. Three musicians are 
standing before a stone house, in the snow, which has a bluish 
tinge. They are dressed in quaint but not antique costumes. 
The one on my left was playing a violin, the middle one with his 
back squarely presented, standing on one foot in a square patch 
of yellow light coming from the window of the house above 
them, plays a horn with a wide end. The one at the right plays 
a flute? or fife. There is a door with stone steps covered with 
snow, partly out of the picture on the left. The grayish surface 
of the house is streaked in an irregular pattern with white lines. 
On the right beyond the musicians is the corner of the house 
where there stands a post about three feet high. Foot prints 
go around this corner. In the background on the right is a 
house with reddish light windows and walls of greenish ? white, 
and partly obscured by it a church with a single square based 
steeple, also showing reddish light from the windows. The 
clothes of the men, the walls, and everything but the snow, are 
in varying shades of what seemed a mixture of green, purple and 
blue. (Subject was sure he would remember Christmas tree, 
but forgot it.) 

H. (Gliickliches Neujahr. 10".) Three jovial little Germans 
playing the New Year in before the closed door of a little stone 
or stucco cottage. A light shines from a square window upon 
the snow, and falls in a bright yellow patch just where the mid- 
dle fiddler is standing. The window itself is glowing orange 
with the light- — the top of a little Christmas tree shows in it. 
The fiddlers' knees are bent — partly playing, partly excited, 
partly cold. A trodden path in the snow leads to the right 
around the corner of the house. A stone post stands there. 
Beyond to the right a wall, over which long lovely sprays of 
bare twigs (long pause) exist against and toward the sky, pro- 
jecting upward and toward the right. There is another small 
stone building to the right. The words are in the lower right 



36 ESTHER E. SHAW 

hand corner, Gliickliches Neujahr, fancy letter placed in care- 
less 'artistic' effect. (Sees picture: Oh — had a feeling that it 
was a church. Just ordinary German script, too. Highly ideal- 
ized the twigs, didn't I? I got a strong sense of life from the 
picture.) 

Sc. (Gliickliches Neujahr. 10".) Three musicians; violin, left, 
side view; horn, back view, end of horn showing at left; sort of 
flute at right, players left side turned. All dressed in dark 
clothes. House with arched doorway at left. (Drew it.) 
Four (should be six) -paned window at right of doorway, shut 
or open, window lighted, green tree inside. Foliage showing 
above house wall further toward right, had flat look. Beyond 
that a sort of street with windows lighted. Perhaps a little 
churchlike structure. Snow. Gliickliches jahr? 

tag 
The difference between an idealized picture and a simply accur- 
ate one is shown by the two descriptions of Gliickliches Neujahr 
by By and H, given above. 37 

It seems impossible to separate visual-motor, and to some ex- 
tent other motor, from visual imagery. When relative position, 
direction of curves, elevations, and so forth are learned, eye- 
motor would seem to be a factor, though a sort of right and 
left movement, perhaps of the hand, or a feeling of positionness 
in the whole body, are often present. A seems to depend very 
consciously upon eye and head motor for every thing of the 
sort. The following are quoted as typical introspections where 
there is special attention to line and position. 

By. "Always get lines before color." 

R. "Get relative position, right and left, by slight movements, 
noting in mind that it is right or left." Subject ordinarily used 
his hands freely in describing, to show me how things were. 

Ev. "Sort of localization of memory, getting general light 
and dark of whole picture. As soon as remembered this got 
fairly definite form." 

B. "Picture not well balanced." "Got balance of picture right 
and that helped in recalling." 

37 Page 39. Ty and Y illustrate this point further. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 37 

S. "Named something whose locality, at bottom, alone re- 
mains." 

The feeling of localization that comes out in the introspection 
on the apple picking (S), and the feeling of being in the scene 
of a picture, the vivifying of it, seem to be, at least in part, 
dependent on motor imagery. H is in the garden (of a black 
and white print) where she finds colors, sun, and warmth; with 
respect to her view of mountains she "was as much there as 
anything." Clearly kinaesthetic and tactile appears the follow- 
ing: H (portrait of a lady) "felt the pearls heavy on her neck." 
Of those who appear to be most motor in this way A, R, H, 
and B had been diagnosed as eye-motor and motor in preced- 
ing tests. There was a tendency to draw, which seems motor, 
on the part of almost all. It was very marked with Ty, almost 
as much so with Sc, Ev, and B, even showing a little with S. 

A good deal seems to be retained by means of what are de- 
scribed as feelings, attitudes, impressions. 

S. Got a beautiful aesthetic impression. 

H. The second effect was of artificiality and cheapness in the 
print. Felt pomposity in man on ladder. (Of a church in- 
terior) The effect is Baptist. 

Ty. Impression of man with back to me was of fatness and 
roundness and jolliness. (Of another picture) Had a pleased 
feeling. 

A series of recalls was taken one week later, to see (1) in 
what way the cards returned to consciousness; (2) how clear- 
ness, accuracy and fullness of detail in the delayed recall com- 
pared with that in the immediate recall, which is from some- 
thing almost like an after image; and (3) in what form or 
forms this detail occurred. 

Sc. When asked to recall last week's pictures, he gave them 
in almost exact order of presentation and said when asked how 
he recalled them that he saw them. When questioned he said, 
"Oh yes, I just saw the pictures." He indicated them, too, by 
what was more a description than a title : The little girl sitting 
on the rocks; The New Year's one with the three musicians. 

R. (2") Church interior. It came back first through a motion 



38 ESTHER E. SHAW 

he had made with his hands when he was explaining the line of 
the pew backs. The Runaway. "Horses came first, probably 
visual. Then things jumping up all of a sudden, heads, etc. 
Then the word 'horses.' Picture became clear and picked out 
details." Port Austin. "Girl on rock." "I probably got 
phrase first." 

(4") Futaara. "Saw gate very distinctly." Christmas 
Booths. "Lighted booths." "I probably got phrase first, or two 
together." 

(10") Italian Lady. "Saw face, picked out words and got 
details. Remember didn't like face very well." 

Ty. (2") "Remembered phrase 'Lincoln's Inn' before re- 
called the card. Then I recalled something unpleasant." (Later 
recalled Church Interior in this connection.) The Runaway 
came up in its composition and atmosphere. 

(10") Canongate came first, saw the card before got name 
for it. 

E. Remembers for the most part as if she had drawn them and 
could look at them again. True of both immediate and de- 
layed recall. Colors pretty distinct but not always sure it was 
the right color. "Recalled people buying Christmas toys at 
brownish booths with lots of light inside them. Visual first." 

Rg. "They come back rather hazily as pictures before any 
names come." (Borne out by the way she names.) "Next, is 
color tone of the whole, before individual figures seem to come." 

In all but three cases of the eleven subjects tested on recall 
the cards seemed to come back first as pictures. With R and 
Ty, phrases used seemed to have occurred first for some of the 
cards ; in one case R recalled by motor means ; B does not know 
how hers come back. To Y, By, Ty, and A, the images of 
delayed recall seem firmer and clearer than those of immediate. 

Y. All these pictures are infinitely clearer now than they were 
the first time. Writing out and checking up enforces details. 
I see them perfectly. 

Ty. Can see some of these much plainer than the Japanese one 
(Nikko) I just had. 

Ev. In general I see the pictures almost as clearly as I was 
able to see them a minute or two after picture was exposed. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 39 

Degrees of accuracy and fullness, and the character of the de- 
tail are shown in the following statements and introspections. 
Sc reports that he thinks of details now that have been in mind 
all the time, called up now perhaps in connection with the same 
things they came up with before. He thinks he was aware at 
first of two related details, a and b, a — color of trees, b — shape 
and probable kind; then became interested in expression of a, 
and when he had expressed it went on to c. In the delayed re- 
call Ev thinks of points which he did not consider in the first 
recall, and which he is, therefore, sure of as really visual memo- 
ries, that is, not aroused by a verbal memory of the other re- 
call. When he sees the cards again he finds the colors brighter 
than he remembered them. A's recalls are good; he adds de- 
tails, and though apparently first recall is not, delayed recall 
seems to be from a visual image. In immediate recall the pro- 
cess was "primarily one of naming. After the name came usu- 
ally some vague and fragmentary visual imagery. Position came 
largely in head- and eye-motor terms." B has a visual image 
of the card in mind during recall. She thinks her visual images 
are built up quickly, more a checking up process than a remem- 
bered whole, — in which respect they probably resemble A's, and 
possibly R. S. Woodworth's. 

Ty. Frohliche Weihnachten is growing more comical. 

Y. (Seeing card again after delayed recall). It is prettier in 
recall than the original. 

Rg. When I see these pictures again they are very different 
from what I recall. For example, I read in backgrounds from 
other pictures. 

Sc. (2") Port Austin. Immediate recall : Lake fills most of left 
and distance. Strip of land going clear across, back at horizon. 
Not much sky. Right foreground, girl, white dress, on jutting 
rocks. Back of her toward background, wharf, sort of landing. 
Building to right, back of that woods, foliage, or something of 
the kind. Lake is still. Building white. Color of sky, lighter 
than lake. Seems to me had impression of hair ribbon. Second 
exposure : In memory lake was a good deal deeper blue. Didn't 
see printing at all. 



40 ESTHER E. SHAW 

One week later : Little girl in white, on rocks at right front 
of picture. Dark hair ribbon, feet dangling over rocks (verified 
in second exposure). Back of her, large white building among 
dark trees. To left of buildings a sort of wharf extending out 
into the lake that takes up most of the center and left of picture. 
Land behind the whole of lake. Narrow strip of sky. (From 
second exposure: lake rather light blue, not bright. Reflection 
below large white building makes a sort of light green patch on 
water. Trees, one at least, seem to be pines. Noted that rocks 
took up more of picture than I had thought.) While looking at 
picture first time looked for boat, because of lake. (Described 
"from the mental picture.") 

Ev. (2") Lincoln's Inn. Immediate recall : After a few min- 
utes' conversation on something else subject remarked that he 
had completely lost the memory of the picture. "General dull 
colors (dull was what they were) came back, pretty much as a 
whole. . . . Nothing apparently started it, was trying to remem- 
ber whether it contained animals, people, faces." 

First description (April 29) : Very dull subdued color as in a 
fog. City street, walls of some sort rising from edge. Looking 
down it, an arch across it. A large opening under the arch for 
the roadway and a smaller one for the sidewalk at the left. I 
think there was none for the other sidewalk. Arch flat on top 
and extending clear across. (Correct.) 

No second exposure. 

Delayed recall (May 6) : A foggy scene, or night scene, in 
London. There was an arch across the road that ran back into 
the picture. A small archway over sidewalk at left. Some sort 
of walls on each side of street. I think there was some dark 
substance — probably foliage — appearing over the fences. Colors 
were dull grays and browns — with a slight grain as if made by 
crayon on toothed paper. (Introspection : Largely visual. Fact 
that had written something before had great effect in helping to 
organize — does not bring back particular words. 'London' was 
firmly impressed, but thinks not necessarily or purely as a word. 
Good sketch accompanying, of gate and its relation to street.) 

A. (2") Port Austin. Immediate recall (May 5) : Water on 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 41 

left, light blue in color, went to edge of picture on left. Straight 
back of water an irregular outline of trees. In foreground just 
to right of center was a young girl seated on rocks. Rocks dull 
slate color just like natural rocks.* Girl wore a white dress, 
short, just below knees, white stockings and shoes.* She was sit- 
ting slightly facing me but more towards the water. No hat, 
hair down her back, not in a braid, but gathered at the neck. The 
rocks extended for some distance past her and to the right 
foreground. In the background was a rather spread out two- 
story and attic white cottage. Ordinary peaked roof with a couple 
of dormer windows. Eight other windows. In front of cottage 
was a pier extending fairly far into the water. In the background 
was an irregular line of trees. (Said he had forgotten roof was 
red. The print in upper left was red, the roof was not.) 

Delayed recall (May 12) : Left foreground — light blue water, 
lake extending some distance back. Left background — irregular 
line of trees on skyline. Right foreground — clump of rocks 
rising very rapidly to the right. Seated on rocks at water's edge, 
looking into water but facing slightly towards subject, a young 
girl. Dressed in white miss's frock, short, white shoes and stock- 
ings.* Hair hanging down her back loosely* but bunched at nape 
of neck. No hat. Right background towards center — a two story 
and attic white house, rather large, partly hidden among trees. 
Several windows visible, six or eight. Seems to be red trimming 
about the upper part of the house,* two chimneys. V roof. In 
front of house a rather long pier, dark gray in color, extending- 
into the water. The top of it is not very high above the water. 
In the background more trees. No boats visible on this water. 

* Errors. It is perhaps noteworthy that B, A, and S, who report least con- 
crete imagery in learning, and most unanalyzable content — S many "associa- 
tions" — are most inaccurate in recall. Definite concrete imagery may be a 
factor in accuracy. 

The other introspection, besides those on delayed recall of 
cards, were examined carefully for verbal imagery, for purposes 
of diagnosis. Results from the introspections on cards follow. 

No verbal imagery reported at any stage: Y, T, E, Ty 
(Counts and pays a good deal of attention to print.) 



42 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Y. (2") Port Austin. The red of the printing appeared in the 
house roof. When asked if she named, in Nikko, where naming 
for identification would be likely to enter in, says no. In recall 
calls up card "edges and all." If while looking at picture shuts 
eyes, opens and corrects, gets better results. 

T. In recall of Kittitas (10") got both men on ladders. After 
recall of Frohliche Weihnachten (2") said on seeing card again, 
"The little boy is bigger in my picture." In 10", got a general 
impression, then went after details. Thinks no naming. In the 
second 2" exposure, knew it was 2" and didn't try to take in 
too much detail or wouldn't have got anything. Thinks no 
naming. 

E. Several times while looking at picture talked about some- 
thing else, which might be supposed to inhibit a naming process if 
it was articulatory. 

Ty. (4") Frohliche Weihnachten. The trees are scraggly, 
some kind of pine, and seven in number. Subject reports that she 
is attracted first by color brightness, then by anything that tempts 
her numerically, then by print if there is any. Says she doesn't 
think of names. 

Verbal imagery reported for 10" exposures, little if any for 
2" exposures : S, B, Sc, Ev, H. 

S. (10") Photograph. As I looked I said, "She looks like 
Inez." May have said "hollyhocks" and "arbor" to myself but 
seeing it so much at the same time that I am not sure. As I 
started to write about things words would come into my mind. 
Subject thinks that vague words are indications that she was try- 
ing to remember. She says, "I got sort of picture of another 
garden with holly-hocks and was conscious of the name of the 
flower. Nikko. Read its name and said it to myself. Just 
saw the rest. Tried to find something I could "light on" — I 
suppose with a dim hope of naming and thus remembering, but 
gave myself up to confused impression of colored pavilions or 
something of the sort. Brighton. Saw things and said "aero- 
planes." Saw they were flags before said it — without naming. 
Then called them "flags" from sense of duty because had mis- 
called. Frohliche Weihnachten. I remember I called child 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 43 

"dear little angel." Don't think I named Santa Claus until try- 
ing to recall. 

(2") Port Austin. Read the print, just plain looked. In- 
terior of Church. Counted the windows, didn't name anything. 
Lincoln's Inn. No verbal imagery. Runaway. Word "hunt" 
came in recall, possibly when looking at it. 

B. (10") Mountains. Method verbal. Used phrases rather 
than words. Used visual to check. Futaara. (Asked to get 
colors.) Remembered "blue roof," "pink tree," etc. Learned 
by words, visual recall. Christmas Booths. Much naming. 
"More anxious I am to remember definitely, the more I tend to 
name." 

(2") Port Austin. Didn't name anything. Didn't see much 
detail. (Drew pretty accurate diagram.) Interior of 
Church. Got picture from visual after-image; continuation of 
old process rather than new one set up, practically lengthens ex- 
posure. In 10" exposure had time to depend on other things 
and so did not need or notice the after-image. 

H. (10") Thinks from experience of forgetting details that 
she was "going to remember" that "you must just passively soak 
it in, or you'll get the details separated." 38 She named occasion- 
ally for identification. 

(2") Detail much cut down, just look with no thought of 
words. With 10" more apt to notice separate factors and to 
name a few things or colors. 

Sc. (2") Has tendency to sketch. 

(4") Lincoln's Inn. Named things to himself — "arches," 
"two," etc. 

(10") Nikko. (Given spontaneously as comment.) While 
learning card was trying to find out what the things were, to find 
names. If material had been familiar thinks never would have 
been conscious of naming process, would have perceived picture 
and got the names so close together that would not have been 
aware. Names, as a device, unimportant things "that you think 

38 A surprising number of cases occur where mental reservation was made 
to remember an important thing and it was forgotten. (R, By.) 



44 ESTHER E. SHAW 

you'll forget." Puts down not so much what he sees as what he 
remembers. By the time he has written a bit he has forgotten 
all sorts of things that he saw. But he does not seem to be rely- 
ing very much either on verbal images. 39 

In these cases it would appear that the increase in the time 
accounted for the presence of verbal imagery. 

Noticeably verbal: A, R, By, Rg. 

A. (2") Process was principally one of naming; good deal of 
eye and head motor. 

(2") Lincoln's Inn. Sunset snow scene, looking into the end 
of a street. Street stopped with a high red brick wall with a 
gate in the center. Past the wall were the outlines of several 
brick buildings. To the right of the picture just to the right of 
the wall was a larger irregularly shaped building, noted for its 
large and frequent chimneys. The buildings towards the fore- 
ground were smaller. To the left of the end wall were a few 
low buildings hidden behind another wall like the end one. Side- 
walks on each side and at the end man standing on side walk 
near gate at end. Some small trees lining street. Street itself 
appeared white as if covered with snow. About usual width. 
List of words used in learning in so far as they could be re- 
called : wall, red, gate, house, hump, trees, street, snow, dark, 
low. 

Recall : Street scene. Dusk. Snow on street. End closed by 
fairly high brick wall. Gate at center. Man standing near gate. 
Street lined at end and both sides by small trees. Beyond end 

39 There is a resemblance here to Woodworth's experience. "What I got 
was sometimes to be called an image and sometimes not ; but in all cases, with 
a few doubtful exceptions, it consisted of facts previously noticed. When I 
say 'facts/ I do not mean verbal statements of facts, but a direct consciousness 
of some thing, quality, relation, action — of something which I had observed 
in the original experience. I did not get back experiences as concrete totals, 
but only facts which I had discriminated out of those totals. In the original 
experiences, those facts had had a concrete setting or background; but this 
setting was not recalled. The facts were recalled in isolation." (R. S. 
Woodworth. A Revision of Imageless Thought, p. 12.). It is possible that 
Woodworth does not enough consider the probability that he is of a par- 
ticular — and that perhaps a not very common — type. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 45 

wall some rather imposing stone buildings. On right some rather 
large buildings hidden behind wall. Many chimneys and chimney- 
like structures. On left, continuation of end wall and behind it 
some more modest buildings. Street has curbs and walks at both 
sides and ends. 

(4") Wrote out lists of words used, got fewer than he 
expected. 

(10") Got more of general effect, actually reported fewer 
details. 

R. (10") Canongate. Made a note to call them Highlanders 
— name too long to use. Photograph. Named, visual to check. 

(2") Got geometrical plan first. Then filled in. Naming oc- 
curred in placing details. 

(4") Christmas booths. Got a chance to visualize it more. 
Futaara. Naming, nothing motor about it, association aroused in 
cortex. In recall, see my plan of the picture, don't see words. 

(10") More naming and more visual. 

By. (2") Interior of Church. Word Vaulting' came into mind. 
If a thing may be one of two things, if identification enters in, 
naming takes place. 40 Nothing else he would call naming here. 
Lincoln's Inn. Named "gate," "Gothic," "snow." 

(5") Portrait of a Lady. Naming process. 

Rg. (2") Port Austin. On seeing picture tried to see it vividly 
enough to keep after picture in mind. Recollected as an entire 
picture, picking out one detail after another in writing of it but 
seen as a whole. Interior of Church. Remembers saying, "red 
printing in corner, gray pews." Otherwise seen as a picture while 
writing. 

(4") Frohliche Weihnachten. Probably articulated the Ger- 
man words, and the little hills were seen separately. Lincoln's 
Inn. Said title to herself as saw. Apparently no other naming. 
Rest of picture stays easily as visual. 

(10") Try to burden my mind with more details now you are 
showing them longer, sort of bothers me; I go from point to 

40 Ev. (10") Nikko. Named somewhat, rather for purposes of identifica- 
tion than for memory. 



46 ESTHER E. SHAW 

point in the picture, more a series of details than a single 
impression. 

By and Rg are not so verbal as A and R. With R and Rg 
there seems to be more naming with the longer period. 

The differences for the different times in methods of learning 
and recall come out in the introspections. In general two sec- 
onds were too brief for a clear impression, in several cases too 
brief to get significance (T, B, Ty, S). It was in this exposure 
that such errors were found as the red of print appearing in the 
roof of the house. The observer gets general lines or masses, and 
color effects and has a tendency to use after-image to lengthen 
time (B, A). In the majority of cases (8 out of 13) no 
naming was reported for the 2" times, although one subject 
(Ty) counted and read print in that interval. Of these eight, 
four report no naming for 10" exposures, the other four depend 
upon it somewhat, especially when the matter of identification 
comes up. Of the four (Y, Ty, T, E) who report no naming 
all are markedly visual types in the other experiments; of the 
four who name, two (Sc and H) are good visualizers, also 
good verbal types, and two (Ev and B) are weak visualizers, 
one (Ev) very verbal, and the other uncertain — a highly articu- 
latory type when learning words, but apparently not especially a 
user of words when the material is concrete. In the cases where 
naming was reported for 2" exposures four (A, By, S, R) 
are verbal; Rg is neither especially verbal nor especially motor, 
is on the contrary, visual-concrete and auditory; S and By for 
10" periods can not be sure whether they name or not, certainly 
they do not name freely or as a conscious method. It appears 
probable, moreover, that A, who reports most naming and most 
definitely, overrated at least the extent to which words were 
clearly formulated. There is clearly some tendency for verbal 
imagery to increase with lengthened exposure. 

The relation of the 2", 4", and 10" periods is expressed by the 
group using verbal imagery as follows : A, opportunity to add 
words in 4" (in 10" he really got a more general or a more con- 
fused impression, the statements are more general and the count 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 47 

goes down) ; R, 4" gave a chance to visualize it more, used 
scheme to save time, naming elements, 10" meant just more vis- 
ual and more naming — no change in method ; Rg, 4" stays easily 
as a visual impression, 10" gave more a series of details than a 
general or unified impression. Verbal seem to have been a poor 
method for Rg. The non-verbal group reports as follows : 

Y. Method same for 2" as for 10", but with 10" had time to 
be conscious what I was doing, to think how I would write them 
down — I think it doesn't work very well. 

T. Cannot grasp a picture in 2", succeeds much better in 4", 
loses in 10", probably from association. 

H. Detail much cut down when have 2", just look -with no 
thought of words; with 10" notice and name separate factors, 
really remember better when I don't get details separated but just 
passively soak them in. (H increases number of details consider- 
ably between 2 and 10 seconds, but per cent not at all.) 

The one great difficulty for the visualizers, and for some at 
least of the others, in the 10" interval seems to be that time is 
given for many associations with other scenes and pictures, which 
results either in a new group-organization often involving ideali- 
zation, or in confusion. 41 

The 4" period seems to give the best results as a whole. There 
is time to grasp the picture, especially for the slower visualizers ; 
the more purely verbal do not seem to gain much by the longer 
time, if anything they lose, like A; and it does not give time 
enough for the unity of the impression to be broken up or for 
confusion or idealization to take place through association. An 
occasional visual-verbal like Ty may increase the number of 
accurate details in ten seconds, but so far as the reports go it is 
at the expense of a great many errors. There are certainly twice 

41 H. (pp. 32, 37) Of one picture reports that she was "there," of another, 
"confused with the other Japanese picture." In one black and white print 
she gets color, sound and sunshine into garden scene. 

S. (p. 33) who depends more than any of the other observers on associa- 
tions and relations, is "reminded of another picture"; "'saw another garden"; 
"thought of a cherry picking I had seen." 

R- (p- 3 2 ) reports a blue sky in a sepia print; says he doesn't get into 
the scene to see and feel things except during the longer exposure periods. 



48 ESTHER E. SHAW 

as many errors in 10" as in 4" periods, and practically none in 
2". Errors appear to be largely due to association by similarity, 
which takes time, and are much more common with visualizers, 
though there are individual differences. T (visual) and By 
(mixed), I should characterize as accurate types, perhaps inclined 
by habits of observation to keep entities separate. 

Visual concrete imagery and the single impression, 42 judged 
by the effect of the 2", 4", and 10" times, would seem to have the 
advantage over a verbal, analytical method. In the first place, 
the least visual, A and S make not only no improvement in the 
per cent of details learned, but show actual decreases of 10% 
and 8%. Rg and H, who' though good visualizers use a some- 
what verbal and quite analytical method on this material in the 
10" periods, make no improvement; both report confusion in the 
longer time. Sc who also employs verbal imagery quite delib- 
erately in the 10" period, though a good visualizer also makes no 
improvement from 2" to 10", although in the case of both Rg 
and Sc the data for 4" shows a decided improvement. Y, one 
of the best visualizers, reports that the 10" period gives her time 
to consider how she will write down her report, which she thinks 
is confusing; she makes an improvement of only 3%. Ty, also 
one of the best visualizers, with a strong tendency always to con- 
sider how she will express herself in words, though she increases 
the absolute number of details learned, makes a proportional gain 
of only 2%. By, E, T, and Ev, all visual, and all habitual 
users of visual imagery wherever possible, except Ev, who can 
use it and who makes the least improvement, made an average 
improvement of 14%, without Ev of 17.5%. These four, so 
far as the introspections show, used no verbal imagery in learn- 
ing, and recalled from a visual image. B and R are the excep- 
tions, with per cents of improvement of 10 and 15.5. B, though 
she does not seem very visual, nevertheless recalls from a con- 

42 B reports that she "learned details (10") verbally, visual didn't stick, 
the more anxious to remember definitely the more verbal." But thinks she 
recalls from a visual image "built up quickly, more a checking process than a 
remembered whole." These visual images, built up later from a verbal and 
unanalyzable learning process, a "noting" of details, are different from the 
"single impressions," the "soaked in" details of the visual learner. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 49 

structed visual image to a considerable extent, and supplements 
visual by motor and by "meaning" as well as by words. R uses a 
mixed and very methodical visual-motor-verbal method and im- 
proves steadily, 2" 42.5% of details, 4" 51%, 10" 58%. T, Sc, 
and Rg make their improvement, moreover, in the 4" interval. 
Unfortunately there is no 4" record for Ty, By, Y, and E. It 
would appear from this that a 10" time, in addition to allowing 
the formation of confusing associations, allows for a use, with 
some subjects at least, of verbal imagery and analysis which do 
not aid in the learning; the purely visual unity is broken up and 
no other has time to form. A visual method, if it is not confused 
with others, makes for improvement in this interval, or probably 
in the 4" period. The verbal type using a verbal method makes 
no improvement and may even fall back; the visual type using 
a verbal method does improve markedly; the mixed type using 
a mixed method also improves. 

When we come to the consideration of the percent of details 43 
remembered, the absolute standing in the whole experiment, what 
seem to me to be very interesting correlations between success and 
method appear. The least visual, A and S, get the smallest aver- 
age number of details and the smallest per cents ; they also get "a 
general effect," blurred, for 10"; both of these subjects have 
many errors. Sc, Ty, and Y, excellent visualizers, with a strong 
tendency to use verbal in long times, make very high records and 
make them immediately, in 2" to 4" exposures. T, visual, though 
not making an especially high record, makes it by the end of the 
4" period, improving 10% between 2" and 4". E and By, ex- 
cellent visualizers, E very slow, make their high records by the 
end of the 10" period, and unfortunately have no 4" records. 
Ev, H, Rg, not so efficiently visual as the others, make their 
good records immediately — all of them, like Sc, Ty, Y, tend to 
use verbal, especially for the 10" period. R and B make good 
records by the end of ten seconds, R by a mixed visual, verbal, 
and schematic (motor?) method, B by a mixed method involving 
some visual, a good deal of motor, verbal, and "meanings." On 
the whole, the more purely visual method seems to give a greater 

43 See Table, p. 31. 



50 ESTHER E. SHAW 

number of details in a short time, to be quicker and relatively 
more effective than any other. Visual is also quicker where not 
so relatively effective. A good mixed method, like R's, if meth- 
odically handled, is effective. A fragmentary visual picture is not 
integrated by S's associations and comments, nor by A's vague 
'naming.' Association is slow, and confusing within these time 
limits. Motor is slow — R and B and possibly T. Verbal, prob- 
ably because it involves analysis into' details, is slow and 
confusing. 

The test leaves the subjects in three or four groups as to visual 
imagery: i. Ty, Y, By, Sc, E; 2. T, Rg, R; 3. H, Ev, B; 
4. A, S. Of these, R, B and H are motor, probably also Y 
and T ; Ev, A, S, Sc, R, the most verbal, though Ty, Y, and By 
use verbal imagery occasionally. T, E, and A appear to be the 
least flexible in type. 

Correlation between 10" results, and visual type as previously 
shown. 



Type 


Subject 
By. 


Per cent of details 
70 — 80 


Highly visual 


Y 

E 

Ty 

Sc 


60 — 70 
60 — 70 
60 — 70 
60 — 70 


Good visual 
ability 


T 

Rg 

R 


50 — 60 
50 — 60 
50 — 60 




H 


40 — 50 




Ev 


40 — 50 


Weak visual 


B 

A 


40 — 50 
40 — 50 



S 30 — 40 

Summary. 
It seems evident that the imagery used varies greatly from in- 
dividual to individual, and from task to task for each individual. 
Yet the results show a pretty steady and habitual use of imagery 
on the part of the individual subjects, an imaginal type, or type- 
group which can be fairly clearly determined. It is not, perhaps, 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 51 

possible to classify people into a small number of fairly definite 
groups; but it is possible to become pretty definitely acquainted 
with the imaginal habits and capacities of any individual, and to 
describe him as more or less verbal, more or less visual, flexible, 
or many-habited or capacitied, inflexible, or largely bound to one 
imaginal form. It seems probable, too, that he may be described 
as more or less imaginal ; that is, he may have more or less mental 
content which, if it is imagery at all, or imagery as ordinarily 
conceived, is so complicated or syncopated or vestigial or other- 
wise unanalyzable that the subject can not lay a finger on it. 

There is a great deal of imagery other than verbal, accom- 
panying or even displacing verbal when verbal imagery seems 
called for by the nature of the material. Verbal imagery, more- 
over, seems to be of a very fragmentary character in most in- 
stances where it does occur. The relation of the idea or stimulus, 
verbal or other, to word is so automatized that in most cases no 
image of the word supervenes. Judging from the introspections, 
thought often takes place in concrete imagery, — which may be, 
and in fact usually is, except when difficulties of some sort arise, 
of a very syncopated, or possibly liminal character. In fact, 
thought apparently takes place clearly and in high forms, without 
the appearance of anything that can be said with certainty by the 
subject to be imaginal at all. 

The free word-association test which follows was originally 
intended to settle, if possible, a number of questions raised in 
these diagnosis tests. When verbal imagery and reactions were 
undoubtedly stimulated by the conditions of the experiment, 
would visual or other concrete imagery function, would the con- 
crete imagery precede the reaction word or direct its choice? 
Particularly, would a relation appear between this functioning 
imagery if it occurred, and the predominantly imaginal or non- 
verbal types? Then, too, if verbal imagery occurred normally 
before the response it would certainly come out in introspections 
here. Lastly, if meanings have a tendency to occur in imageless 
or unanalyzable forms it seemed probable that they would here, 
especially if rapidity of thought, and attention directed to other 



52 ESTHER E. SHAW 

ends are factors in such occurrence. That is, this experiment was 
undertaken in the first instance for the sake of the resulting in- 
trospections, which would have the advantage of covering an ex- 
tremely brief interval of time, when the attention was very defi- 
nitely focused upon a task, yet upon a task that left considerable 
freedom to the subject to go his own gait. 



CHAPTER III. 
The Free Word Association Test. 44 

The free word association test, undertaken for the purposes 
stated at the end of the preceding chapter, has offered unforeseen 
opportunities for investigation of the function of words. 

Times. 
The first attempt to organize this material was an analysis of 
the reaction times. The times are given in sigma. 



tj 




Reaction times. 45 








'Jo Total no. 


Av. 


Under 


900- 


700- 


1000- 


Over 


3 timed reac. 


time 


900 


1000 


1400 


2000 


2000 


S 112 


1 182 


33% 


12.5% 


777% 


5o% 


4-5% 


Y 108 


1205 


31-4 


18.5 


69.4 


42.6 


74 


R 107 


1462 


15 


8.4 


48 


62.6 


14 


By 97 


1502 


2 


6.2 


45 


80.4 


H-3 


H no 


I5S8 


10.9 


10.9 


48 


56.3 


21.8 


T 104 


1564 


134 


2.9 


5i 


62.5 


21. 1 


A 106 


1589 


47 


n.3 


49 


68 


16 


Ev 103 


1868 


•97 


1.9 


38.8 


757 


21.39 


B 105 


2265 


5-7 


57 


30 


55-2 


33-3 


E 94 


3356 


3-2 





9-5 


20.2 


76.5 



Of the two very quick reactors, Y and S, S had previously 
shown herself a verbal type and dependent largely upon associa- 
tions and comparatively imageless relationships for learning; Y 
up to this point had been predominantly visual, and in this test 
has visual-concrete imagery accompanying or preceding about 
56% of the reactions, the visual imagery appearing to be very in- 
timately connected with verbal. Unfortunately, neither of these 
subjects was able to continue in the later tests. Of the three 

44 See description of it in Chapter I and in Appendix. 

45 The total average of these times, omitting the somewhat untrustworthy 
record of E, is 1577 sigma, with E's average 1755. The total average of 
thirty subjects in Crane's work (Association Reaction and Reaction Time) is 
1434. The increased time in this experiment may be due simply to the fact 
that there were fewer subjects; it may be due in part to the different charac- 
ter of the words in the list ; or the greater average age, 27.7 as compared with 
24.7, may have something to do with it. 



54 ESTHER E. SHAW 

slowest reactors, Ev and B have seemed quite verbal, though 
both have a great deal of comparatively non-imaginal thought 
content; E is predominantly, I should say abnormally, given to 
concrete imagery and is extremely slow in the use of words, 
though by inclination a writer. The investigator feels assured 
in her previous judgment that Ev, E, and B are essentially slow 
reactors; these times correspond not only with previous time 
records but with the general speech habits of the three. R, By, 
and H, whose times are shorter than the average, are highly 
verbal, with plenty of possibility of concrete imagery, mainly 
visual, with R motor. Of T and A, whose times are about 
average, T is rather visual and non-verbal, A verbal and motor — 
comparatively faded or vestigial imagery. 

No clear correlations appear between these times and the type- 
groups as previously determined, though verbal predispositions 
seem to have an advantage, and predominantly concrete-imaginal 
a disadvantage. The times are, however, clearly related to the sort 
of imagery used in this test, and are valuable for the indirect light 
they throw upon some of the questions raised. In order to see 
if the presence of imagery affected the times, and if so, if there 
proved to be any clear difference between individuals in that re- 
gard, a comparison of the times for automatic verbal reactions 
and reactions clearly accompanied by imagery was undertaken. 
Twenty-five times chosen from different days, for reactions as 
clearly verbal and automatic as could be found, were compared 
with an equal number, or as near it as the record of the subject 
permitted, of reactions accompanied by imagery, with the prefer- 
ence given to cases when imagery clearly preceded. With E it 
was possible only to take the reactions that appeared, on the face 
of them, — through comparison with other records, etc. — to be 
most verbal; twenty reactions were finally chosen. Y's record 
provided only fourteen clearly verbal reactions. On the other 
hand, with Ev (7), A (10), S (8) and T (4) it was difficult 
to get any number of image-accompanied words for comparison ; 
T has so few as to invalidate the result, though the four used 
are clear cut and trustworthy instances. The absolute differences 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 55 

in sigma are shown below, together with the per cents resulting 
from a relation of those differences to the verbal reaction times. 





Verbal 


Imaginal 


Difference 


Percent 46 Type as Previously 


Subject 


Reac. Times 


Reac. Times 


1 in Sigma 


of Delay Retermined 


S • 


889 


IIOI 


212 


24 


Unanalyzable, verbal. 


Y 


949 


990 


41 


4 


Very visual. 


H 


IOOI 


145 1 


450 


45 


Visual, other concrete, 
and verbal. 


R 


1 102 


1407 


302 


27 


Visual, other concrete, 
and verbal. 


A 


1 129 


1552 


432 


37 


Visual-motor and verbal. 


B 


1222 


1979 


757 


62 


Motor, and other con- 
crete, verbal. 


Ev 


1249 


1639 


319 


25 


Unanalyzable. Verbal. 


By 


1263 


1686 


423 


33-5 


Visual and verbal. 


T 


1426 


2038 


612 


43 


Visual 


E 


2088 


2975 


887 


42 


Concrete imagery 
engrossing. 



The per cents seem on the whole to give a truer basis for 
grouping according to the amount of delay. Y shows very little 
lengthening; meanings of the concrete sort seem to be habitual 
with her and her quick times would seem to indicate a very close 
association with speech (words). The next four, with a range 
from S, 24% delay, to By, 33.5%, are the four most clearly and 
highly verbal of the subjects. S and Ev provide very few 
usable examples of concrete imagery and neither appears to em- 
ploy very much in reading. R and By are much more given to 
concrete imagery, but By, at any rate, does not use much in the 
reading of prose, though trained to use it for poetry. A, 37%, 
seems to have very little concrete imagery and to be quite verbal. 
These five are considerably delayed by the appearance of imagery 
but do not dwell upon it to* the extent that the visually preoccu- 
pied E and H do (42% and 45% of delay), or T in the rare 
cases where it occurs. B with 62% of delay probably, like E, 

46 Crane, Association Reaction and Reaction Time, pp. 27-8. "The results 
of our experiments, while they cannot be definitely tabulated, indicate that 
as a general rule the coming, with the appearance of the stimulus, of a 
visual image tends to retard the reaction. 

There are two general classes of visual imagery. There is a simple imagery, 
where nothing appears in the picture save the isolated image, generally of 
the object representing the stimulus word. There is a .complex imagery, in 
which the picture represents a complete situation. In either case the 
natural result is retardation of reaction time." (p. 27) 



56 ESTHER E. SHAW 

T, and H, does not pass readily to verbal expression under any 
condition, and seems like them to be interested in her concrete 
imagery. 47 

The Verbal Element 
The verbal element was then analyzed, on the basis of both the 
reaction words and the introspections. The following factors 
were classed as verbal: repetition or pronouncing of stimulus 
words, perseveration of words, verbal form of stimulus word 
controlling or influencing form of reaction word, a definite lit- 
erary context or phrase relationship, synonyms (not so surely de- 
termined, dependent on introspection), and other very close 
verbal associations, of class or category, drat> — color; tapir — 
giraffe, turf — jockey. These last are especially likely to figure in 
other counts, because they are most likely to be accompanied by 
concrete imagery, and in some cases are even preceded by it. 

Subjects Timeav. Gen'l Verbal No. verb, phrases 



T 


1564 


90% 


IS 


By 


1502 


88 


70 


A 


IS89 


88 


59 


S 


1 182 


84 


46 


Ev 


1868 


82 


23 


B 


2265 


84 


60 


H 


1558 


82 


63 


R 


1462 


74 


46 


Y 


120s 


65 


14 


E 


3356 


39 


14 



These results would seem to indicate that Y and E are the 
least verbal in tendency, By, H, B, A, and possibly S, are 
most so. I have omitted T from this group because of the ex- 
tremely small group of combinations that can be rated as verbal 
phrases — she appears to be much more closely related to E and 
Y, and previous experience bears this out. She is neither a ready 
talker nor a practiced writer. There is a great deal of doubt in 
my mind as to whether the more automatic verbal reactions, due 
to influence of stimulus word form, should be interpreted as in- 
dications of a truly verbal mental habit. They are not inconsist- 
ent with it, but it appears probable that the automatic verbal re- 

47 Y's imagery, to use Crane's terminology, may be described as 'simple/ 
E's as 'complex.' 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 57 

sponse may be present where there is not an habitual use of word 
images in the thinking process. In making diagnosis it might be 
well to distinguish as far as possible between automatic verbal 
response, and internal verbal, or use of verbal images. The posi- 
tion of S would, for example, be considerably affected; for stim- 
ulus-word form, both through appearance and articulation, in- 
fluenced a large per cent of her reactions. 

The lack of correspondence between Y's quick time and her 
very imaginal results points, together with some of the results 
from Ev, to a difference between verbal thinking and the close 
relationship between concrete images and words which consists 
in a visual-concrete form of meanings, 'simple' imagery. Mean- 
ings for Ev are likely to be present in the form of other words 
or in forms for him imaginally non-analyzable. By, who had the 
highest record in previous verbal tests, has, if the number of 
phrases is taken into consideration, the highest record here. E 
and Y, who have previously shown most visual-concrete imagery, 
show least verbal tendency here; that is, words do not call up 
other words directly. Both talk a good deal at times, but very 
hesitatingly when thinking. H is verbal in previous verbal tests, 
and has a high record here. A, showing little concrete imagery 
in other tests, has a very high verbal record here. At the two 
extremes there seems to be a considerable amount of correlation 
between these results and the others. 

The high record in definite literary context of S and H 
should be an indication of a high degree of verbal memory. The 
presence of literary vocabulary and phrase emphasizes perhaps 
nothing more than the literary background and wide reading of 
S, H, R, and E. The absence of a high record in the cases of 
Y and Ev seems to need some explanation; both would be ex- 
pected to rank high. Y, however, in previous tests has shown 
very little preoccupation with words as such, and a poor verbal 
memory. Ev has shown a preoccupation with significance rather 
than with the words themselves. A tendency to give synonyms 
accompanied, at least, by consciousness of meaning, comes out 
with Y and Ev, and may account in part for the low verbal 



58 ESTHER E. SHAW 

record, doing away with the more automatic response. Logical 
relations and predicative reactions appear very little in this test 
where a premium is placed on the more automatic verbal response 
— on the first quick reaction. R, A, By, and B show most evi- 
dence of this. 

Parts of Speech. 

An analysis of stimulus and reaction words as to occurrence 
and relation of parts of speech bears out Crane's conclusion 48 that 
verb and adjective as well as noun stimuli give a marked domi- 
nance of noun responses. Out of a total of 458 stimulus words in- 
terpreted as nouns 386, or 84%, brought noun responses. Out of 
161 stimulus words interpreted as verbs 88, or 54%, brought 
noun responses. Out of 383 interpreted as adjectives (such com- 
binations as grate — fire, wind — storm, maple — sugar, were con- 
sidered noun to noun reactions) 286, or nearly 75%, brought 
noun responses. It is significant, however, that with the records 
of two> of the subjects removed the above per cents become 84, 
62, and 88. The per cents for these two persons, Ev and Y, are 
83.5% nouns to nouns; 25% nouns to verbs as compared with 
72% verbs to verbs; 17.8% nouns to adjectives as compared to 
82% adjectives to adjectives. These two make respectively 43 
and 38 noun to noun responses, 8 and 15 verb to verb, and 28 
and 32 adjective to adjective. A great deal of this is to be ac- 
counted for by the tendency referred to above to give in response 
synonyms, or words of similar or contrasting meanings. 

For example : 

Y. Severe — hard, broadens — narrows, scarlet — red, animated 
— quick, comely — pretty, jeopardy — danger, low — high. 

Ev. Severe — hard, broadens — widens, scarlet — red (six of 
the other eight give scarlet — letter), comely — beautiful, jeopardy 
— danger, low — high, animated — lively. 

Compare with these the following typical records : 

R. Severe — cold, broadens — mind, scarlet — letter, comely — 
girl, jeopardy — life, low — bridge, animated — life. 

B. Severe — teacher, broadens — me, scarlet — letter, comely — 
48 Crane, Association Reaction and Reaction Time, p. 8. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



59 



maiden, jeopardy — Hair-Breadth-Harry, low — sweet, animated 
— cow. 

Only one of the other subjects (T) approached the records of 
Y and Ev and much of her record can be explained by a ten- 
dency to reply with a word suggested by the visual form of the 
stimulus word (comely — homely, low — blow, jeopardy — leopard, 
animated — animal, inculcate — calculate, distribute — disturb) , 
though there is no doubt also some tendency to keep responses in 
the same class (blue — green, scarlet — red). 

It will be seen from the table below that 764 out of a total of 
1 04 1 responses were nouns. The noun being the simplest and 
probably the most thoroughly automatized part of speech, its 
predominance in the responses is not hard to understand. But 
the distinction that held above is quite as noticeable here; the 
total noun reactions for Ev and Y are 46 and 56, for T 65 ; for 
the others 80 to 91. Here, as elsewhere, Ev and Y show a less 
automatized word to word relation, Y apparently making the 
connection through concrete-imaginal forms of meanings, Ev 
through meanings of a comparatively unanalyzable sort. 







Parts of Speech 


in the Reactions. 








is 

'J? 

3 


Total num- 
ber reactions 
used 




53 3 

^ 3 


3 

3 


3 
O 

•5" 

< 




•° S 

!-■ 3 

<D O 

> « 


2 

rt 



< 


i-H 
V 

> 

O 
-J-J 

u 

> 


J3 

1-4 

> 

O 
+-> 

c 

3 
O 


> 



$ 

u 

Ih 

.0 

t-H 

> 


V 


102 


43 


6 


7 


56 


28 


8 





16 


8 


Ev 


108 


38 


7 


1 


46 


32 


15 


8 


16 


23 


H 


108 


41 


40 


10 


91 


2 


1 


1 


14 


5 


R 


109 


35 


33 


12 


80 


5 


3 


6 


19 


12 


A 


106 


35 
34 


37 


12 


85 


3 


1 


4 


17 

16 


6 


T 


97 


24 


7 


65 


7 


7 


3 


12 


S 


107 


41 


36 


8 


86 


6 


3 





12 


6 


B 


105 


4i 


35 


12 


88 


4 


1 


2 


16 


5 


By 


no 


38 


39 


6 


84 








3 


18 


5 


E 


89 


41 


28 


13 


83 











16 





Total 


| 1041 


386 


286 


88 


764 


87 


39 


27 


l6l 


82 



60 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Concrete Imagery. 

A great deal of concrete imagery was present in mind for 
some of the reactors during the time between the appearance of 
the stimulus words and that of the reactions, notably for E, Y, 
H, and B. It was notably absent with Ev, T, and A. In general, 
it may be said that a high degree of concrete imagery does not 
accompany a highly verbal record, though the converse does not 
appear to be quite so true. The common concrete imagery was, 
as would be expected, visual. R reported a good deal of motor, 
and B a little. The especially significant point here was the fact 
that in many cases the presence of visual or other concrete 
imagery undoubtedly preceded any verbal image or response. 49 
The directions for introspections in this test laid especial emphasis 
on a strictly chronological and orderly account of the mental 
content. 

Presence of Concrete Imagery. 



ibject 


No. of 


Vis. 


Vis. 


Vis. 


Tot. 


Other 


Tot. 


%of 




react. 


prec. 


accom. 


fol. 




concrete 




react. 


Y 


107 


34 


11 


1 


46 


H 


60 


56 


S 


112 





6 


10 


16 


— 


16 


14 


R 


113 


2 


9 


1 


12 


15 


25* 


22 


A 


no 


— 


3 


— 


3 


5 


8 


7 


B 


112 


8 


6 


2 


16 


1 


17 


IS 


T 


in 


4 


2 


1 


7 


— 


7 


6-3 


H 


113 


1 


24 


7 


32 


9 


4i 


36 


Ev 


113 


4 


2 


— 


6 


— 


6 


5-3 


B 


no 


6 


3 


19 


28 


7 


34* 


3i 


E 


96 


50 


40 


1 


9i 


11 


93* 


97 



* Some overlapping. 

E, who reports 50 preceding, was somewhat confused and is 
therefore not entirely reliable; but Y, By, B, and R give very 
clear reports, and Ev and T appear to have the same experience. 
In a considerable number of cases the imagery has to do directly 
with the reaction word. These subjects are certainly capable of 
employing other imagery than verbal under circumstances most 
likely to bring out verbal : the task called for words, and the whole 
situation favors a verbal response. 

The following reactions illustrate the occurrence of concrete 

49 Compare Crane, Association Reaction and Reaction Time, pp. 27-29. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



61 



imagery connected with the 
The times are compared with 
imagery occurs. 



Y. (990) 
chill 


snow 


1375 


Hall 


corridor 


759 


chattered 


noise 


1295 


enjoyed 


picnic 


141 1 


lawns 


garden 


761 


By. 
mirror 


glass 




omnibuses 


London 


.... 


streaming 
isobar 


line 
map 




B. (1979) 
mirrors 


light 


1609 


bell 


door 


2088 


vagrant 


tramp 


6477 


chattered 


squirrel 


2059 


R. (1407) 
quince 


lemon 


769 


host 


friend 


1342 


Ev. (1639) 
carrot 


tomato 


1827 


T. (2088) 
dusky 


dandy 


1463 


E. (2975) 
florid 


carnation 





reaction word and preceding it. 50 
the average for all reactions where 



Felt baffled, then a fleeting picture of a 

winter night brought the word. 
A fleeting picture of the hall in North, 

then "corridor." 
Picture of apple tree full of birds. Then 

big table at house. 
Had C. in mind so word brought picnic 

of last night up river. 
Glimpse of green trees, then flash of 

Vassar Circle. 

Visual image of mirrors, then a sub- 
stance — "glass." 

Visual preceding of street with busses, 
named "London." 

Strong inhibition, image of banner. 

Tried combinations of "therm." Vague 
visual image of isothermal map. 

Faint ray of light reflected from mirror, 

had in Physics this A. M. 
Door in mind some time before able to 

get word. 
Tried to think of word in psychiatry. 

Visual of tramp but set for other 

word. 
Auditory image, then word, then visual 

image. 

Saw succession of fruits passing. Saw 

before saying. 
Saw host and party. Said "friend" to say 

something. Could have said food or 

men. 

Groping for some other form of vege- 
table. Tendency to color image. 



Creole gentleman — checked 
yellow tie, straw hat. 



trousers, 
Saw carnations, laurel colored and white. 



50 Crane, Association Reaction and Reaction Time, p. 27. 
"No. 2. Ear-Lobe, 4.764(2.688) 

'Image of ear comes almost at once. Took some time to pick out what 

was going to say.' 
No. 3. Activity-Mental, 1.667(1.030) 

'Image of a student at a student's table. When I see those images the 

word don't come.' " 



62 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



critical 
(understood 
crystal) 
Orpheus 
severe 

dive 



crystal _ hang- 4442 Crystal candelabra, lighted room, 
ing things 

harp 1643 Saw Orpheus with his harp. 

Miss McC 1463 Complete portrait in gray dress of Miss 

McC. 
poise 4219 Tense girl, poised for dive from board. 



In a number of cases the stimulus word seems to excite both 
verbal and concrete imagery; often when there is apparently a 
quite automatic phrase reaction, the concrete imagery, to the 
subject's observation, appears not only to occur as soon as the 
reaction word but to precede it. This tendency would seem to 
indicate the habitual connection of concrete imagery with words. 
The verbal reaction average is given for comparison. 



Y. (949) 
Orpheus 

R. (1102) 

fly 
humble 

grate 

E. (2088) 

rippling 

wind 

scarlet 

Ev. (1249) 

Orpheus 

brook 

courtsy 



Eurydice 1285 Visual of youth in Greek costume, then 

a girl, — then word. 

paper 857 Saw flies on paper before saying. 

very Thought of Uriah Heep. Was Heep but 

"very" came out. 
teeth 1716 Thought of fire. Grating teeth (motor). 

brook 2664 Saw brook, foaming in woods. Sure 

image came first. 
trees 2390 Sound of in big pine woods. Sight of 

trees then word, 
leaf 1778 Maze of autumn trees by V. C. Lake. 

Leaves in lake. 

Eurydice 1642 Couldn't tell if other person or word, 

trout 1815 Saw brook, then fish. Then got word 

combination, 
bow 1969 Confused image of minuet in colonial 

costume. 

In the following case there is apparently excitation of imagery 
by the partially excited word. 



E. 
carrot 



parrot 



771 Big green and red parrot laughing. 
Thinks it came first, at least came 
with "parrot." 



What seems to be the presence of meanings in concrete form 
occurs for several of the subjects. 51 



Y. 
96 assimilate gather 



2641 A feeling of tension, of wondering why 
word didn't come. Then sense of 
something like lines getting together — 
then "gather." 



51 See V of Preliminary Group. Chap. II. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



63 



102 distribute gather 



914 



A sense of scattering out. The minute I 
tried to remember it became a series 
of lines from central point — but I 
don't think the lines were there at 
first. "Gather" came quickly as if ten- 
sion had been released. 

Visual of shining colored fabric. 

(Visual) Something opaque, soft, dark. 

Vague picture of fairy king in robes. 

Always have thought of him with daugh- 
ter in jeopardy. 
Traditional teacher, my ninth grade one. 

Complete portrait in gray dress. 
Elderly man in Louis XIV clothes tak- 
ing off his hat. 
Old lady in gray silk with lace cap. 

Followed by indistinct vision of woman, 
tall hard jawed, with spectacles. 

Day first word. Had idea of girl's face, 
not visual. 

The following reactions illustrate rivalry of concrete images, 
another indication of habitually concrete-imaginal mental con- 
tent. 
Y. 

maple . willow 1036 Mixed idea of sugar and trees, both vis- 

ually represented. Tree displaced su- 
gar, then reaction. 

dive hole 1100 Associated dive with vagrant-robber 

brushed aside by paddle-canoe with 
picture of river with green banks. 
Same river. 

Verbal Imagery. 
It may, on the other hand, indicate a verbal habit of mind 
when, as with Ev, By, and B, a verbal association will often 
break in and overcome a visual or other concrete image. 



sumptuous 

dusky 

majestic 

H. 

jeopardy 


rich 
dark 
good 

Jepthah 


1328 

1455 

973 

1994 


severe 
E. 

severe 
courtsy 


teacher 

Miss Mc C — 
man 


2118 

1463 
1367 


eighty 

B. 

severe 


cap 
teacher 


4008 
1447 


serene 


day 


4559 



Ev. 
lake 

chink 



B. 

chink 

chili 

By 

medium 

low 

bliss 



Chinaman 

Chinaman 
fever 



hard 
bridge 

Perry 



1216 
1372 

2277 
1369 

1435 
1591 



"The Lake" 
broke in. 

Accompanied 
was wrong, 
in mind. 



Winnepesaukee, "River" 

by consciousness that it 
The chink of money was 



Visual of chink in wall. Verbal came 

up and inhibited visual. 
Inhibition due to several things coming 

at once. Felt cold, said "fever." 

Visual image of a steak. 

Thought first of tide, but said "bridge" 

while saw tide. 
Vague idea of a state of being. Name 

came before could get word for it. 



64 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



Verbal rivalry seems quite certainly to be an indication of a 
verbal habit. 

2040 "Girl" came to mind first but "drop" got 

ahead. 
1538 Wanted to say "conjunction" but phrase 

came. 
1 139 Wanted to say "leopard." 

856 Panic. Vague picture of marsh. 

Thought "fish" said "oyster." 
898 "Dues" came half way up, then "money" 

quickly. 
1066 Started to say "red" but "yellow" seem- 
ed to overtake it and get ahead. 

1552 Thought "November" (poetical associa- 
tion), but "day" came out. 
869 "Sauce," "blossom," "jelly" came most 
convincingly. 
1090 Thought "Judy," said "bowl." 
1101 Thought of "Pippa" first. Couldn't re- 
sist "hot." 

1596 "Muse" came vaguely. 
2124 Thought "media" but it did not come 
distinctly. 

1063 Pronounced maple. Impetus to say 
"bough" — not strong enough. 

1414 Was trying to think of "spiritualism." 
1010 "Party" trying to emerge, but "time" 
beat it. 

1420 "Book" was not the word in mind, but 
it did not come up enough to be rec- 
ognized. 

1803 "George" was in mind but would not 
come. 

1304 Hesitated. Words like "lengthen" 
threatened to come. 

1671 Response delayed by struggle between 
beginning and finishing line. 

1979 Read first syllable with short u. "Bun- 
gle" and "Burgle" contending. 

1323 "Bee" from sound of "hum." Then 
"Vergil." Said "bee" with "Vergil" in 
mind 

More automatic reactions tend to come for H, T, S, A, R, 

Ev, By; less automatic for Y and B. 

Verbal meanings seem sometimes to occur. 



R. 

courtsy 


drop 


also 


ran 


jeopardy 

Y. 

frog 


life 
oyster 


due 


money 


dyes 


yellow 


H. 
chill 


day 


quince 


jelly 


punch 
piping 


bowl 
hot 


T. 

Orpheus 
medium 


theatre 
salt 


S. 
maple 


tree 


A. 

medium 

enjoyed 


price 
time 


B. 

reading 


book 


Lake 


Constantine 


Ev. 
broadens 


widens 


braes 


banks 


bugle 


bungle 


By. 
hum 


bee 



broadens 
remember 


roads 
what 


4777 

1222 


R 
remember 


what 


1372 


broadens 
chattered 
By 
conterminous 


mind 
monkey 

lines 


I362 
1548 

I99I 



A. 






knifeblade; 


5 dull 


1618 


lawns 


mowed 


918 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 65 

H. 

maple tree 941 "Maple" means a "tree." 

gem biscuit 1521 A "gem" is a "biscuit." 

A sort of judging or logical influence is perhaps visible in 
the following, and seems to me to indicate a verbal tendency. 

A 

What do they broaden? Roads. 
Struck as a question. Wondered what 
was supposed to remember. 

Remember ! What ? Feeling as if had 

forgotten something. 
Looked for thing broadens might affect. 
Thought of what chattered. 

Finally got word by deciding what stim- 
ulus word meant. 

An attributive or predicative reaction quite certainly indicates 
a tendency to verbal thought on the part of By, A, and R. 

"Knifeblade is dull." Attributive. 
"Lawn is mowed." 

A great many reversed verbal associations (not like Crane's 
"backward running," milk, bread and) occurred, especially in 
the records of B and R. S has a number that are purely 
visual- verbal. In order to see if the reversal was accom- 
panied by a lengthened time, averages of the reversed 
and of five or six as nearly unimpeachable verbal and 
similar reactions as possible were compared; a comparison 
was also made with the general verbal time average. This 
procedure showed a considerable lengthening of the time (108 
to 378 sigma over the special averages, to 604 over the general 
verbal average) for A, Ev, H, By, R, and especially for B. 
It is perhaps noteworthy that the subjects who have most of 
these reactions are all among those whose time is lengthened ; that 
A, H, B, and R, all in this group, have the clearest motor ten- 
dencies; and that B and R who are most motor show the great- 
est delay. Practically the same, or somewhat (greatest differ- 
ence 78 sigma) shorter times, are shown by the visual-verbal S 
and by the visuals Y and T. E has a very much shorter time 
average for these verbal reversals (723 sigma), which I take to 
be an indication that these particular reactions are really and 



66 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



merely verbal. It seems possible that the auditory-vocal-motor 

types are most confused by such reactions and most liable to 

them: 

Illustrations of reversed associations. 

H. Special verb. av. 1357. General verb. av. 1001. 

low swing 2175 ("Sweet and low" in mind vaguely.) 

S. Special verb. av. 885. General verb. av. 889. 

clock o'clock 885 

low bellow . 

chattered teeth 

A. Special verb. av. 1124. 
extract Pond's 
tide high 

B. Special verb. av. 11 12. 
low sweet 
eggs butter 
By. Special verb. av. 11 18. 
Hall A. G. 
jeopardy put 
dyes diamond 
R. Special verb. av. 1120. 
courtsy drop 
lawns mow 
culture German 
T. Special verb. av. 1216. 
fly swat 



877 
871 
General verb. av. 1129. 
1098 

"35 
General verb. av. 1222. 

1500 

1438 (Visual of flower "butter and eggs.") 
General verb. av. 1263. 

2263 

1 123 

1738 (Strong inhibition.) 
General verb. av. 1102. 

2040 ("Girl" came to mind first.) 

1169 

1239 
General verb. av. 1426. 

1268 



Perseverance of word forms through several reactions occurs 
in a number of cases: Y, 12; S, A, By, and B, 7; R, T, and 
Ev. 5; and E certainly 4 (9 cases of repetition). In the case 
of Y it seems to be the indication of fatigue, the inability to 
check pure automatic reaction. For example, the word good, 
appeared quite naturally as a response to savoursome ; it reap 1 - 
peared with also, where there is no other word to dispute its 
entrance and just after subject had said "I will be good" ; with 
majestic, spread, streaming, logical and chink. At this point the 
test was dropped for the day. The word had become an obsession. 
Ev's experience with the word black is somewhat similar. 



2697 For some reason had "black" in mind, 
had to be got rid of. 

.... Recognized as color word. "Black" dis- 
appointed. Had just rejected in 11. 

1801 "Black" just came, distinct feeling of 
disgust when it appearedl. 

1558 Bothered again by "black." Think it may 
come from color of machine. 



May 20. 
11 wind 


blow 


14 drab 


black 


20 silvery 


black 


May 27 
2,7 mirrors 


shine 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 67 

June 12 

84 grim Mr. 2272 "Dark" or "black" conflicting. 

86 dusky black 1052 "Black" has been a very common word 

with me in these experiments. 

It will be noticed that the word is not spoken in this case unless 
it fits. Even in the extreme case of Y there is the same tendency, 
as the following reactions show. 

58 spread good 1374 Food-taste-good. 

61 streaming good 1071 Pleasant image of flowing down line. 

Surprise at word. 

71 logical good 1184 Vague "hurry" of work on argument. 

Then the connection between logical 
and good seemed clear. 

Later in the case of no the same thing occurs. 

90 yes no 933 

91 conterminous no 3174 Did not seem to be repetition, asked self 

if I had seen word. Answer "no." 

Whether it is that the word has a strong tendency not to come, 
or not to come completely (to be inhibited), unless it fits into the 
verbal or other association group, or that while it is coming the 
mind makes a frantic effort to have it seem sensible, I cannot 
say. 

T. 

65 gold golden (west) 2383 

68 arcade gold 3636 Something about the word — rca — (pos- 

sibly brocade) suggested mellow, rich 
color. 

Here there was need apparently for such a word, and gold, being 

ready, came. 

S. 

12 hum bug 711 

34 humble bug 1050 

A. 

12 hum bees 1864 

34 humble bees 971 Reports thought of 12 before giving 

association. 
101 moist day 1123 

108 serene day 1679 Tried to get body of water, wouldn't 

come. 

This case is, perhaps, more association than perseveration. 

R. 

61 streaming water 1723 Brought back 59, murmur-stream com- 

plex. 

Pure perseveration. 

By. 

35 carrot top 1080 

36 bell top 1002 



68 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



By's it is like Y's good. 




19 remember me 


I590 


64 due me 


986 


76 analyze it 


1458 


92 Punch him 


966 


96 assimilate me 


1786 


98 enjoyed it 


2161 


102 distribute it 


1579 



Very strong inhibition. 

Several personal pronouns in mind. 

Began to say "me" but refused. 

These repetitions seem in some cases to be a sort of set, almost 
an Aufgabe in By's case, to respond with a personal pronoun to 
verbs. Certainly the place into which the word may come is 
pretty well controlled by whether or not it would fit there. 

Types of Imagery Illustrated. 
It is evident from the introspections given that the common 
imagery is visual. Visual imagery appeared profusely for Y 
and E, in considerable quantity for H and B, and somewhat for 
By and S. With others it was neglible. It occurred before the 
reaction word for E, Y, B, By, T, Ev, and R. Visual-verbal 
imagery occurred occasionally for Y and By, at least once for 
R, B, and T. S from the time she "got a suggestion of 'stone' 
printed after 'cling,' " saw faint print images over or in place 
of or to right of the stimulus word in nearly all cases. She ap- 
pears to have given herself an Aufgabe of this sort, just as Ev 
set himself for synonyms. 
Visual-verbal imagery illustrated. 



Visual of 1861-62 typewritten at top of 
page. 

Saw KULTUR against dark background 
Saw written The Terrible Meek. 

Saw it typed alongside. 

Saw it written in book all together. 

Pronounced. Almost saw "theatre" 
printed. Saw "Majestic" capitalized. 

Saw "o' " before "clock." 

Transferred enough letters to make 
"leopard" appear in place of "jeop- 
ardy." 

Saw bellow" in print in place of "low." 

Faint print image a little to right (typi- 
cal). 



B. 

1861-62 


Grant 


1961 


Y. 

culture 
humble 
T. 


German 
meek 


1521 
1099 


gray 
R. 

comely 
S. _ 
majestic 


grey 


2374 


girl 
theatre 


597 
1047 


clock 
jeopardy 


o'clock 
leopard 


885 
1070 


low 

punch 


bellow 
Judy 


877 
716 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



69 



moist moisture 865 Saw "ure" added, though in a way image 

appeared separate from original word. 

B y- ... 

braes Scotch 2026 Tried to think of meaning and thought 

of "Scotch" visually. 

S also has what seem to be entirely visual-motor images of words, 
images "projected into space" before her. 

stone 933 Pronounced "gem." Faint air image of 



gem 



Pronounced 
"stone." 



She says of these air images, "I don't see them exactly, but I 
know they are in a certain place, and that I am focussing my 
eyes on them." 

Next to visual, the largest amount of concrete imagery or 
sensation reported is motor or kinaesthetic. To the reports that 
have already been cited in other connections, the following are 
added as being especially interesting or clear cut. 



Y. 

briskly 
streaming 

jeopardy 



quickly 
good 

danger 



1071 

960 



vast 



big 



Sense of motion, then "quickly." 
Pleasant image of a flowing down line. 

"Good" (perseveration) surprised. 
Swift, vague sensation of catching 

breath, as if a faint reflection of a 

dangerous experience, then the word. 
"Vast" seemed to swell till letters were 

giant ones, against bare cliff. Then 

the word. 

Feeling of motion, arms, elbows, skirts. 

Some one on Engineering walk. 
Feeling of a face in motion. Not my 

face, anybody's. 

Kinaesthetic sensation. The word. Then 
indistinct visual of horse. 

Motor image of carrot before getting 

"top." 
Saw busses in motor way. 

Auditory imagery was reported very seldom. The stimulus 
words 52 which it was thought might induce it were not very suc- 
cessful. The majority of the responses were verbal, most of them 
quite automatic or capable of being so interpreted. With 
grate, wind, chink, and rippling the associations were all auto- 

52 List of words : rippling, hum, wind, silvery, bell, clock, murmur, lapping, 
chattered, chink, bugle, jingle, grate, piping. The words that received the 
largest number of auditory responses are italicized. 'Clock' had no such re- 
sponses, either in vocabulary or in imagery, and 'silvery' had one in vocabu- 
lary (silvery- voice) unaccompanied by an auditory image. 



H. 

briskly 


walked 


1074 


animated 


expression 


1376 


B. 

briskly 


trot 


ISIS 


R. 

carrot 


top 


654 


omnibuses 


London 


1272 



70 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



matic, though R and E did report auditory imagery with 
rippling ( — stream, — brook). 78 of the words given in 
response, 117 responses, may safely be said to be automati- 
cally verbal of some sort. There were 53 reaction words 
with which sound might have been expected, but did 
not appear; as murmur — bees, wind — howl, rippling — waves, 
lapping — plashing, jingle — jangle, piping — note. There were 
only 17 reactions to these words that could possibly be classed 
as auditory — in the sense of accompaniment of word by 
auditory imagery. Serene, however, gave S verbal and mu- 
sical imagery. Of the subjects, E had 7 auditory reactions, Y 5, 
and R, By, Ev, B, and H one each of which I could be sure. 
These results do not include the auditory factor that was prob- 
ably present in the auditory-vocal-motor complex, in verbal 
imagery like that of H for example. 

H. 

Thought of "Blow, bugle, blow." 

Song "This is the end of a perfect day" 
began to sing itself. 

(Complex train of thought, Spenser's 
"loathly lady.") 

Sound of wind in big pine woods. Vis- 
ual of trees. 

Bees in alder tree, "just booming" in it. 
(Typical.) 



bugle 

S. 

serene 


blow 
day 


1263 
921 


E. 
jingle 


loathly 


4034 


wind 


trees 


2300 


hum 


bees 


1218 


Y. 

chattered 


noise 


1295 


B. 

chattered 


squirrel 


2059 


By. 
hum 


bee 


1323 


R. 

rippling 


stream 


979 



Picture of tree full of birds, 
table at house. 



Then big 



Auditory image, then word, then visual 
image. 



"Bee" from 
"Vergil." 
in mind. 



sound of "hum." Then 
Said "bee" with "Vergil" 



Got sound of rippling and "stream" sug- 
gested itself. 



Unanalyzable Mental Content. 
The following records of unanalyzable mental processes fall 
into the two groups made by Messer and others, 53 of intellectual 
and affective attitudes; of feeling-toned 54 and purely intellectual 

53 Messer, Untersuchungen iiber das Denken, p. 184. Ach, Ueber die Wil- 
lenstatigkeit und das Denken, p. 213. 

54 The word is here used in its more general and comprehensive sense. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



7i 



thought. The feeling-toned I have not sub-divided ; the intellectual 
fall into two main classes. ( 1 ) A complex matter is present as 
a single attitude or impression, a good deal, as Ach 55 says, in 
a nutshell; remembrance of instructions or of conditions of 
task, and in some cases meanings, seem to come under this head. 
These contents like some much simpler might be explained as 
residual or partially excited groups of processes. (2) There is 
a sense of relationship, of a thing belonging to the same group 
or having the same pattern as another, a consciousness of like- 
ness or similarity. 

Closely related to these are the processes that show the influ- 
ence of an idea not present as a distinguishable element, the con- 
trol of a "determining tendency." 56 

Feeling-toned. 

899 Vivid picture of blue. Tension, word 

brought relief. 
Sense of harshness, then word. 

329 A friend likes them. I don't. Feeling- 
toned. 

Cold bare feeling. Thought, what else 

is like that? 

.... Immediate impression of something un- 
pleasant. Notion of colored dress fol- 
lowed. Unpleasantness possibly due 
to symbolism. 

Intellectual content. 

(1) Complex matter appearing as single (simple) attitude or 
impression. 
Partially excited imagery. 

Y. 

medium 



Y. 

blue 


red 


grim 

H. 

frog 


sorry 
legs 


logical 


analysis 


A. 
drab 


dress 



tapir 



equivalent 



braes 



James 1455 Vague complex of spiritualistic prac- 

tices. James' attitude toward medi- 
ums, then the word "James." 

Beatrix 1347 "Animal" came first, then in "tumbled" 

the whole Beatrix incident (from a 
previous experiment). 
Length made me pronounce to myself. 
Hurried flash of the Chemistry build- 
ing and S. and a talk about different 
valences with S. a day or so ago. 

Scotland 787 Sense of cool wood with stream. 



equi-valent 1163 



55 Ach, Ueber die Willenstatigkeit und das Denken, p. 211. 

56 Ibid., pp. 209, 228. 



^ 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



s. 
1861-62 


Civil War 


1463 


remember 


dust 


1642 


R. 
florid 


face 


470 


dyes 


red 


2003 



heterogeneous homogeneous 2267 

Ev. 

sesquipedalian nothing 3941 



Murmur 
golden 


sound 
silver 


1322 
1888 


B. 
punch 


bag 


1087 


H. 

tide 


time 


1669 



isobar 



Meanings. 
Y. 

severe 57 



Isadore 



hard 



1454 



3203 



As said "Civil War," distinctly conscious 
of some previous experiment. Felt 
self in Miss S.'s room, though no 
definite imagery. 

Thought "that" first, but it didn't seem 
worth saying. 

Thought "Florida," but wanted to say 
something sensible. 

Rejected "red" as a verbal. Saw dyes 
and finally said word. (This, the 
two preceding reactions, and Ev's 
"sesquipedalian" below show the pres- 
ence of an attitude of mind, a self 
given Aufgabe.) 

Several unformed words came up. 

First tried to remember what word 
meant. Felt would not be able to get 
synonym; all the time feeling for 
word that would correspond in some 
way. "Nothing" sort of statement of 
failure. (This introspection sl.ows 
very well the difficulty of classification. 
The feeling for word that would cor- 
respond, if not that for a synonym, is 
of the nature of a feeling of relation, 
and is given again there.) 

Delayed by some poetical association. 

Bothered for a moment because didn't 
compare in form. 

Thought of "punch — ", but "bag" came. 
Later visual of punch-bowl. 

Feeling of darkness and line of poem 
I couldn't get, so said "time" instead. 
Now I know it was "Oh life's full bit- 
ter tide." 

Thought first of word of three syllables 
ending in bar, a grand name. Then 

Mrs. 's name an easy substitute. 

Later "Conchabar." 



Idea of sternness, associated vaguely 
with middle-aged woman, then word, 
all at the same time. 



57 This meaning, and others in the section on meanings in concrete form, 
recall Ribot's statement : "We learn to understand a concept as we learn to 
walk, dance, fence, or play a musical instrument; it is a habit, i.e. an orga- 
nized memory." (General Ideas, p. 131, quoted by Titchener, Experimental 
Psychology of the Thought Processes, pp. 200-201.) 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 



73 



A. 

florid 



grate 



complection 1083 



fire 



Ev. 




fly 


bird 


dichotomy 


broken 


turf 


race 


(2) Relations. 


Ev. 




sesquipedalian 


nothing 


distribute 


spread 


R. 




wit 


humor 


Y. 




bliss 


gay 


over 


behind 


also 


then 


B. 




equivalent 


geometry 


S. 




animated 


pop-gun 


Ev. 




prose 


verse 


treasure 


trove 


Orpheus 


Eurydice 



grate 



great 



997 



1944 

3554 
1632 



3941 
i859 



Repeated word. Knew quality of per- 
son. Thought of a cheek. Followed 
by articulatory tendency to say "com- 
plection." 

Hesitation as to which of two mean- 
ings to take. 

Hesitation (think between insect and 

act), surprised at reaction. 
Knew it was separateness or twoness, 

and "broken" came first. 
Understood in sporting sense, but for 

minute no word. 



All the time feeling for a word that 
would correspond in some way. 

Distinctly suggested supplies to the Bel- 
gians. Groped for word to express 
that kind of distribution. 



1476 Vaguely conscious before "humor" 
came that "wit" was one of a pair. 
"And" had tendency to come. 

783 As saying "gay" had a feeling that it did 

not fit "bliss." 
685 Sense of small word meaning direction. 

Then "behind' popped in. 
1343 Feeling of little nondescript grammatical 

word. 

2385 Placed in mathematical group immedi- 
ately. "Geometry" first to come. 

930 Felt it was crazy. Image of the thing 
followed. 

1376 Slight dissatisfaction. Missed and or 
poetry. 

1773 A waiting for and recognition of "trove" 
as the right word. 

1642 Distinct feeling, who is the other one? 
Couldn't tell if it was other person or 
other word. 

1453 I do not know. I do not think that I 
visualized it ; the first idea that occurr- 
ed to me was that it was a word of 
several meanings and I just gave one 
of the others. 



Influence of the idea in mind. 



26 broadens road 



1784 A broad white road, very dusty, fern 
and laurel along it, widens suddenly 
as it turns. 



74 ESTHER E. SHAW 

27 olivaceous trees 5992 Saw dusty olive trees, yellowish in the 

sun, with dark olives on them, by a 
dusty road. 

28 culture vineyards 2189 A very dusty, slowly sloping hill with 

grape vines, very heavy with dark 
blue grapes, on its terraces. I had a 
vague impression of lake water, blue 
and shining hot, between me and it. 

Influence of Kind of Word. 

Very little influence upon imagery of the kind of word 58 given 
can be detected. The abstract terms (logical, due) do not as a 
rule produce imagery, and when they do it is only with the more 
imaginal subjects — E, Y, and H. E succeeds in interpreting most 
of them as connotative. For example: 

wit man 1453 Picture of a man laughing discreetly, 

yes eyes 4220 Girl looking up at man, telling him she 

would marry him. 

Abstract words have a tendency, noticeable particularly with 
Ev, to produce meaning content in more or less unanalyzable 
form. In the case of "dichotomy" he "knew it was separateness 
or twoness, and 'broken' came first." Words of the sensuous 
class (hum, chill), though they have a tendency to produce 
imagery, have no marked tendency to produce it in kind, as was 
seen in the discussion of the auditory group. The objective 
(frog, bell) and connotative (treasure, vagrant) groups get a 
certain amount of imagery; the records of those subjects who 
have very little imagery would lead one to think that they are 
the most productive of imagery. The kind of word, however, 
does have a marked tendency to produce the same kind in reac- 
tion, the per cents varying from 84 with Ev to 41 with E; and 
words commonly produce others from the same general cate- 
gory. An interesting illustration of this last point came up in 
connection with experiment V of the preliminary tests, the 
making of word lists, — for instance, writing as many rhymes as 
possible in a minute to speak. The subjects were asked to report 
all the rejections, and one of them said that he had been a re- 
porter and knew a great many words which he would not like 

56 Description of association test. Chap. I, pp. 6, 7. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 75 

to report to a lady and that he was afraid they would come up. 
At the conclusion of the experiment he reported that he had not 
been troubled by this vocabulary. It had not fitted the situation 
and had not come up. 

Summary. 

The times, beyond showing that quick word to word reactions 
might be expected from Y and S and slow from B, Ev, and E, 
show a marked tendency of the presence of concrete imagery 
to retard the time, except in the case of Y, and to retard it more 
for the imaginal types of subjects than for the verbal, with the 
same exception of Y. 

Concrete imagery occurs in considerable quantity with several 
of the subjects, with the imaginal types but not with all of them. 
56% of Y's reactions and 97% of E's were accompanied or 
preceded by concrete imagery. It seems clear that concrete im- 
agery having to do with either stimulus or reaction word occurred 
before the reaction word, and that such occurrence is to be as- 
sociated with the visualizing, or other imagizing habit, of Y, E, 
H, and B, in connection with words, possibly in connection with 
reading, though the isolated word is, of course, quite different 
from words in combination, and much more emphatic. Mental 
content impossible of analysis by the subject appears frequently, 
is characteristic of some subjects, notably Ev, and must be taken 
account of in diagnosis. The difficulty here on the part of the 
subjects was to distinguish between what came before and what 
came after the speaking of the reaction word. Imagery developed 
very rapidly in many cases, especially during introspection. 



CHAPTER IV 
Individual Diagnosis Records. 

The diagnosis sheets that follow summarize the information 
yielded as to the individual subjects, by the experiments of the 
two preceding chapters. I have added to this accounts of the 
speech and writing habits and other pertinent characteristics of 
the subjects, drawn from my personal knowledge of them, and a 
few reports of imagery from the experiments of Chapter V. 

Experiments Summarized. 
Preliminary Tests. 

I. Reading of descriptive passages. 

II. Spelling backwards, and pronouncing from words spelled 
backwards. 

III. Groups of symbols. 

IV. Words that sound alike but are spelled differently. 

V. Lists of words : rhyming to test auditory- vocal-mo tor, with 
the same ending to test visual. 
VI. Words that are spelled alike but sound differently. 
VII. Picture postcards. 

The Free Word Association Test. 

A. 

( Fernald : Auditory-vocal-motor. ) 
III. First group for 6 items, medium for 9. Method, largely 

visual motor. 
V. a. Third group. 

b. Second group, high. Visual-motor supplemented by ar- 
ticulatory. Perhaps more visual than he thinks. 

c. Second group. 

VII. Low rank. Poorer record for 10" than for 2". Verbal and 
visual, probably largely visual-motor. Many errors, espe- 
cially in colors, due to association and naming and probably 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 77 

to lack of color imagery. Reports often very full, but full 
of errors. Reports learning by eye and head movements. 
Noticeably verbal, but not so exclusively a naming process 
as he supposed. Tendency to use after images to lengthen 
time (see B). Delayed recall seems to be from a visual 
image. Least visual subject. 

Association Test. Average time 1.589". General verbal 
88%. Phrases 59, some logical and predicative reactions. 
(Verbal.) Noticeable lack of concrete imagery. None pre- 
ceding. Imagery increases time 37%. Some verbal rivalry, 
more automatic reactions tend to come. Reversed verbal 
lengthens time. Some unanalyzable content. 

Summary. 
III-V. Visual-motor supplemented by articulatory. Fair record 

and fairly flexible. 
VIL Low rank. Verbal, visual, visual-motor. Poor color im- 
agery. Naming, associations. Recall from sort of visual 
image, nothing vivid about it. 

Association Test. 7th in reaction time. Verbal, prob- 
ably internal and automatic. Little concrete. Unanalyzable. 
Fairly flexible. 

An instructor in psychology. The introspections in gen- 
eral are meagre. The subject does not find imagery to 
report. 

B. 

I. Visual, vague, unrelated. Kinaesthetic reported for smell. 

Very fleeting auditory. Organic and kinaesthetic sensa- 
tions strong. Verbal memory good. Some unanalyzable 
impressions. Fairly flexible, slow. 

II. a. Very slow. Vocal-motor and articulatory method, spells 

forward several times. Visual practically no use. 
b. Time medium. Vocal-motor method. "Reversed in 
some way not visual." 
III. For 6 items heads list, for 9 items second. Articulatory 
and visual method with associations. 



78 ESTHER E. SHAW 

IV. Heads list. Auditory-vocal-motor method, visual as check. 
V. a. Third group, at foot. Purely articulatory method. Non- 
sense words inhibited. Slow. 

b. Third group, very slow. Articulatory rather than rhym- 
ing. Unable to use visual. 

c. Third group. Lack of flexibility. 

VI. Heads list. Articulatory, and probably motor imagery. No 

visual, no auditory reported. 
VII. Lowest rank. Visual, motor, verbal, meanings. Sees colors 
brighter than on card.- Gets very little color from 2" ex- 
posure. Probable weakness in color imagery and holding 
visual factors grouped. Visual imagery in recall neither 
distinct nor accurate. Attention to balance, and tendency 
to draw, probably motor. Gets diagram in 2". Uses phrases 
rather than words in learning. Verbal method seems to 
help. Does not know how her delayed recalls come, has 
visual image in mind during description, built up, more a 
checking process than a remembered whole. 

Association Test. Average time 2.265" '. General verbal 
84%. Verbal phrases 60, a few logical and predicative re- 
actions. Some visual-verbal. Some kinaesthetic, at least 
one auditory. Concrete imagery 31%, some preceding — 
images related to reaction word, causes delay of 62%. 
Verbal associations tend to overcome visual. Some verbal 
rivalry, less automatic tend to come. Great many reversed 
verbal, time lengthened greatly. Meanings in indistinct 
concrete imagery. Some unanalyzable impressions. 

Summary. 
I. Visual vague, auditory fleeting, kinaesthetic and organic 
strong, some unanalyzable. Slow. 
II- VI. Low record except for VI. Vocal-motor, articulatory, 
schematic relation. Visual used only as check. Inflexible. 
VII. Lowest rank. Method largely motor and verbal, a little 
visual-concrete. Can build up visual as a check. Gets dia- 
gram very quickly, color slowly. Phrases rather than 
words. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 79 

Association Test. Very slow. Very verbal. Verbal over- 
comes visual-concrete. Good deal concrete which delays 
time 62%. Time greatly lengthened for reversed verbal. 
Some unanalyzable content. Inflexible. Internal verbal. 
Group IV. a. The siren. Sentence followed by very fair small 
drawing of a siren — the side that had not been exposed to 
her ! Her record for IV was very verbal. 

Graduate student in psychology. Has worked in a num- 
ber of experiments. Not musical. Draws. Rather slow of 
speech and movement. Not ready as speaker or writer. 

By. 

I. Visual lacking or dim except when special need. Some lack 

of tendency to organic reaction. Considerable effect of 

rhythm. Verbal memory not good. Gets significance rather 

than words. Says musical memory is vocal-motor. Flexible. 

II. a. High record in time and correctness. Visual. 

b. High record for both times, longer for 2 letters per 
second. Visual of word as group of letters. Guesses. 

III. Very high record for both sets. Articulatory, probably 
mixed with visual schematic. 

IV. First group. Used sense combinations and deduced in 
learning, checked by visual. More visual in recall. 

V. a. Second group. Automatic verbal. 

b. First group. Highest. Vocal-motor, and visual for 
check. 

c. First group. Flexible. 
VI. No record. 

VII. Highest record for 10" period. Very great improvement 
from 2" to 10". Visual, some verbal. Attention to color 
and light. Very distinct and accurate visual. Always gets 
lines before color, probably eye-motor. Recalls visual. 
Images of delayed recall seem firmer and clearer than of 
immediate. 

Association Test. Average time 1.502". General verbal 
reaction 88%. Phrases 70. Concrete imagery 15%, a 
number preceding, many connected with the reaction word ; 



8o ESTHER E. SHAW 

increases time 33.5%. Verbal association will overcome 
verbal-concrete. Visual-verbal occasionally. Some verbal 
rivalry, more automatic reactions tend to come. Some 
auditory. 

Summary. 
I. Visual concrete lacking except when needed. Directed by 
words. Gets significance rather than words. Strong rhythm 
and vocal-motor. Flexible. 
II- VI. Very high record for visual-verbal. Second group for 

vocal-motor. Flexible. 
VII. Highest record. Visual very distinct and accurate. Eye- 
motor. Considerable verbal. 

Association Test. Highest verbal record. Quick re- 
action time. Some visual-verbal. Some concrete imagery, 
increasing time a good deal. Automatic verbal marked. 
Flexible type. 

Has been a newspaper reporter, is at present an in- 
structor in rhetoric. Writes constantly both prose and 
verse. Very critical turn of mind. Musical. Very quick and 
observant. A lively and disputatious talker, and a very 
ready writer. 

E. 
I. Concrete imagery emphasized by practice. Can use a great 
deal of visual without noticing confusion, but is probably 
confused. Smell. Auditory strong. Organic almost lack- 
ing. Rhythm memory marked. Many "feelings" (emotion- 
toned). Verbal memory not very good. Inflexible, visual- 
concrete. Very slow. 
II. a. Slowest time. Poor speller. Visual, confused, some 
vocal-motor, 
b. Visual method gives quick times for short words, long 
times for long words. 2 letters per second, time im- 
proved greatly, used auditory aid. 

III. Medium group for 6 items. Low for 9. Articulatory and 
visual. 

IV. (Visual). Third group. Reports a good deal of visual. 
Visual-concrete and auditory. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 81 

V. a Third group. Great deal of visual-concrete, lengthens 

time. Probable confusion. 

b. Third group. Ability to visualize interfered with rhym : 

ing habit. 

c. Third group. Lack of flexibility. 

VI. Fair. Mixed method. Auditory. Visual, both concrete and 
verbal. 

VII. High record, slow. Reports no verbal. Attention to color, 
pretty distinct but not always right. Picture not especially 
distinct or accurate. Vivified cards (motor). Recalls as if 
had drawn. Very great improvement from 2 to 10". Not 
flexible. 

Association Test. Average time 3.356. General verbal 
39%. Verbal phrases 14. Literary vocabulary noticeable. 
Concrete imagery 97%, 50 cases preceding, delayed time 
42%. Most auditory. Time shorter for reversed reactions. 
Many meanings in concrete form. Imagery complex. 

Summary. 
I. Concrete imagery emphasized by practice, especially visual 
and auditory. Rhythm memory marked. Much feeling- 
toned. Very slow. Considerable confusion. Inflexible. 
II- VI. Visual method very slow, improved by auditory- vocal- 
motor aid. Very low record. Visual-concrete distraction. 
Lack of flexibility. 
VII. High record, slow. Visual and motor. Much color. Re- 
calls visual, no verbal reported. Not flexible. 

Association Test. Slowest time. Word to word appar- 
ently automatic accompanied by concrete imagery. Audi- 
tory. Many meanings in concrete form. Inflexible. 

2b. of Group III affords very interesting illustration of the 
auditory and rhythmic working of E.'s mind. Card shown was 
of ruins at Luxor, a gray print. At about 8" subject began to 

slow 

make marks. / u o J o is I o I She looked at the statue and 
"thought it had an eternal expression. Then I marked off the 
meter, and my mind made the sentence. It made me think of the 



82 ESTHER E. SHAW 

meter of a song. The meter sounded like gray tones, like the stone 
in the picture. It came in beats, I heard it. The heavy beats were 
b below middle c I think, the others a third lower." 

Graduate student in rhetoric. A writer of delicate and fanciful 
verse. A very reluctant writer of prose. A very slow and ramb- 
ling talker, but fond of talking. Probably some; of the slowness 
due to self criticism, and some to nervousness. Has deliberately 
trained her visual and other concrete imagery as a preparation 
for the writing of poetry of a decidedly "imagist" cast. 

Ev. 
I. Visual very fleeting, none from stanza. Draws from writ- 
ten descriptions. Got significance rather than images. 
Tactual, organic and rhythm strong. Good verbal memory 
for prose. Much unanalyzable. 
II. a. Time slow, low per cent of correctness both oral and 
written, worse for written. Method phonetic. Reports a 
feeding that the process is wrong, 
b. Very slow time. Vocal-motor reversal. Great deal of 
guessing from first part of word. 

III. Medium group for 6 items, lowest for 9. Method articu- 
latory and visual. Low record possibly due to slowness. 

IV. "Couldn't do it. Meanings funny. No visual." 
V. a. First group. Purely rhyming process. 

b. First group. Mixed, auditory-vocal-motor with visual 
as test. 

c. First group. Mixed method, flexible. 

VI. Lowest record taken. Apparently articulatory. 
VII. Low rank. Verbal for 10". Some visual. Attention to 
color and light. Practically no errors. Gets localization by 
light and shade. Tendency to draw. Delayed recalls visual, 
much color. Finds colors brighter than he remembered 
them. Named more for identification than for memory. 
Makes good record for the short exposures. 

Association Test. Average time 1.866". General verbal 
82%. Verbal phrases 23, synonyms 27. Consciousness of 
meaning. Concrete imagery 5%, lengthens time 25%. Con- 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 83 

crete precedes in a few cases. Good deal of verbal rivalry, 
more automatic tends to come. Some reversed verbal, time 
lengthened. Meanings and relations in apparently imageless 
form. 

Summary. 
I. Significance rather than words or definite images. Visual 
very fleeting. Verbal memory good. Great deal unanalyza- 
ble. 
II- VI. Very slow with II. High rank in V. Vocal-motor and 
articulatory. Mixed with visual for test in the visual tests. 
Visual not very successful. Much guessing. Flexible. 
VII. Low rank. Very dependent on associations and relations. 
Attention to color and light. Accurate. Visual syncopated. 
A little verbal. 

Association Test. Slow time, fairly verbal, verbal not 
very automatic. Meanings. Little concrete imagery. Much 
unanalyzable. Flexible. 
4 of Group III. Talked, not from a picture, but from some sort 
of mental record of the things in it. (The circumstances 
here are different from those of VII of Group I where the 
subject was deliberately memorizing.) Occasionally some- 
thing comes back that I don't remember noticing — comes 
visually— but surely 95% of what comes I have consciously 
attended to. The record isn't in words usually, though it 
may contain words. Have a chain of ideas, images, sym- 
bols, words, all sorts of things, quite constantly. Images 
tend to come when usual process is not adequate. Wanted 
the right word for color of woman's gown, for instance, 
and got visual image of it. 
An instructor in rhetoric, a trained artist. Very keen mind 
with a speculative and humorous bent. Writes a good deal and 
very well. Very deliberate and slow of speech as of Other move- 
ments, talks well when he talks which apparently is not often. 
Vocalizes a good deal between words, especially when thinking. 

H. 

I. Visual-concrete, vivid, colorful, of movement. Gets full, 



84 ESTHER E. SHAW 

unified and complete picture. Gets suggestions from word 
rather than direction. Auditory. Many feelings and im- 
pressions. Good memory of rhythm. Organic strong. 
Verbal memory of stanza very good. 
II. a. Time record like that of visuals. Probably vocal-motor, 
a motor reversal, "lost if you stop." 

c. Slow record for i letter per second, still slower for 2 
letters per second. Wrong guesses from portion of words. 
Vocal-motor. 

III. Third group. Articulatory and visual. Method improved 
for 9 items. Uses meaningful combinations. 

IV. Last. Learned by "saying." Much confused. 

V. a. Second group. Large auditory element. Many associa- 
tions. 

b. Second group. Visual method supplemented by articu- 
latory. 

c. Second group. 
VI. No record. 

VII. Low rank. Verbal for 10". No improvement from 2 to 
10". Visual, motor. Much preoccupied with color. Re- 
calls color that was not there. Due to vivifying picture, 
probably motor. Many feelings and impressions. Critical. 
Recalls from a picture, Detail full, not always accurate, in- 
fluenced by associations. Details separated if she names. 
Naming confusing. 

Association Test. Average time 1.558". General verbal 
82%. Verbal phrases 63. High record for literary context 
and vocabulary. Concrete imagery 36%, delayed time 45%. 
Good deal of verbal rivalry, more automatic reactions 
come. Reversed verbal lengthens time. Much unanalyzable. 

Summary. 
I. Visual-concrete, vivid unified picture, suggested rather than 
directed by words. Auditory. Very strong organic and 
rhythmic. Very good verbal memory. 
II- VI. Method auditory-vocal-motor and articulatory. Mean- 
ings in more or less imaginal form. Many associations. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 85 

VII. Low rank. Use of words in learning breaks up image. Re- 
calls as pictures, influenced by association. Much unanalyz- 
able, feeling-toned. 

Association Test. Time medium. Word to word asso- 
ciation strong, probably automatic verbal. Good deal con- 
crete, delayed time a good deal. Much unanalyzable. Prob- 
ably inflexible. 

An English instructor and a graduate student in rhetoric. A 
writer of fine and thoughtful verse. Artistic, enthusiastic. Some- 
times talkative and quick of speech, inclined to self criticism, 
however, so that much of her speech, especially thoughtful speech, 
is deliberate, even stumbling. 

R. 

I. Visual schematic. No visual for stanza. Color present. 

Smell, auditory, tactual, organic, present in unusual 
strength. Body motor or kinaesthetic habitual. Verbal 
memory and rhythm not good. 

II. a. Slow time. Perfectly correct. Method vocal-motor, 

probably usually articulatory. 
b. Longest time. Learned to spell words backward (lip 
motor). Long time due to disinclination to trouble of 
reversing. 
III. Medium group for 6 items, about the same for 9 items. 
Articulatory and non-visual relationships. 
IV. Third group. Purely articulatory method. Poor. 
V. a. Second group. Some visual concrete imagery at first. 
Some visual-verbal. 

b. First group, high. Auditory-vocal-motor and visual 
mixed. 

c. Second group. 
VI. No record. 

VII. Good record. Schematic visual and motor. Verbal. In- 
crease in per cent of details with increase of time, more 
visual, more verbal. Not interested in color. Got it in a 
black and white print. Colors mixed him up. Accuracy 
good. Great deal of motor, eye motor for position. Recall 



86 ESTHER E. SHAW 

through motor, visual-concrete, or verbal phrase. Flexible. 
Association Test. Average time 1.462". General verbal 
74%. Phrases 46. Presence of literary vocabulary and 
phrase marked. Concrete imagery 22%, some preceding 
the reaction word; lengthens time 27%. A little visual- 
verbal. Kinaesthetic and auditory. Considerable verbal 
rivalry, more automatic reactions come. Much reversed 
verbal, time considerably longer. Some unanalyzable. 
Flexible. 

Summary. 
I. Visual where it occurs schematic ; smell, auditory, organic, 
motor, a good deal. 
II- VI. Articulatory, and motor relations. Difficulty in revers- 
ing. Auditory-vocal-motor and visual method gives better 
results than auditory-vocal-motor. Fairly flexible. 
VII. Good record. Schematic, visual and motor. Improves with 
time. Color confused. Good deal of eye motor. Delayed 
recall visual, motor, or phrase. Noticeably verbal. Flexible. 
Association Test. Average time third. Quite verbal, 
probably both automatic and internal verbal. A little visual- 
verbal. Considerable concrete imagery, motor and visual. 
Good deal of unanalyzable. Very flexible. 
Graduate student, psychology and medicine. Likes to talk, but 
dislikes very much to< write. Musical, whistles while writing, 
not a distraction. 

Rg- 

I. Visual-concrete, clear, slow stages for movement. Rhythm. 
Gets visual complexes very much syncopated, almost image- 
less. Verbal memory fair. Feeling-toned impressions. 
Somewhat inflexible. 

II. a. Time medium, smallest per cent right for oral. Great 

improvement for written. Method mixed, visual and 
vocal-motor. Written "much harder," time doubled, 
b. Slow. Had to have several spellings. Visual, guessed. 

III. First group for six items. Third for 9 items. Articulatory, 
some visual. Meaningful combinations. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 87 

IV. Second group. Used meanings and some visual. Method 

improved. 
V. a. Second group, lowest. Not a rhyming process. Based 
on auditory and visual similarity of form. 

b. Second group. Probably auditory-vocal-motor and 
visual form. 

c. Third group. Mostly auditory-vocal-motor. Not flexible. 
VI. No record. 

VII. Fair record. Visual, some verbal especially in 10". At- 
tention to color, but often wrong and mixed up. Not ac- 
curate. Recalls rather hazily as pictures. Gets color tone 
before individual figures come. Pictures much changed. 
For 2" saw pictures as a whole in recollection, for 10" 
tried to burden mind with details, lost single impression. 
Verbal seems to be a poor method. 

Summary. 
I. Visual-concrete clear. Tendency to much syncopated visual 
complexes. Rhythm strong. Somewhat inflexible. 

II- VI. Mixed method, visual and auditory-vocal-motor, the lat- 
ter not a rhyming process. Not flexible. 

VII. Fair record. Visual, some verbal, means confusion. Color 
often wrong. Her visual not very successful. Cannot 
handle much detail at a time. Little relation between visual 
and verbal. Not flexible. 

a. of Group V. The flower jug. First sensations of color, the 

metallic lustre and the background, then the shape of the 

thing. The Chinese bag. Feeling for the texture of the 

thing as well as for its color. 

A graduate student in chemistry. A very reluctant writer. 

Not talkative except under favorable circumstances. Musical. 

S. 
I. Visual-concrete, occasionally definite and fragmentary, 
more often fleeting and general, nothing fixed about it. 
Some auditory and organic. "Feelings," especially of 
locality. Verbal memory not very good. Much unanalyza- 
ble. Flexible. 



88 ESTHER E. SHAW 

II. a. Good record. Mixed visualizing and pronouncing. 

b. Good record. Time rather better for 2 letters per sec- 
ond. Guesses. Reports still more mixed method, auditory- 
vocal-motor and visual. 
III. Second group. Visual-motor, and associations. 
IV. "Made sense," deduced. Some help from visual. 
V. a. Second group. Mixed method. 

b. Third group, lowest. Rhyming method, interrupted by 
slow visual. 

c. Third group. 

VI. Auditory imagery clearly present. 

VII. Very low record. Visual, associations, verbal for 10". 
Low rank for 10" due to distracting images and ideas. 
Color a secondary consideration, probably a weak image. 
Visual neither distinct nor accurate, disordered. Locality 
sensations probably visual-motor. Cards come back vaguely 
as pictures. Associations interfere with accuracy. 

Association test. Average time 1.182". General verbal 
84%. Phrases 46. Stimulus from word form, through both 
appearance and pronunciation. High record for literary 
context. Presence of literary vocabulary and phrase marked. 
Imagery largely visual-verbal. Reversed verbal mostly 
visual, time about the same. Much unanalyzable. A little 
concrete imagery, increased time 24%. 

Summary. 
I. Visual-concrete definite and fragmentary, or fleeting and 
general. Some auditory and organic. Some unanalyzable. 
II-VI. Mixed method, auditory-vocal-motor and visual, the 
latter largely visual-motor. Tendency to deduce and make 
sense. Not flexible. 
VII. Relative standing very low, dependent upon associations 
which interfere with accuracy. Recall, vague pictures. 

Association test. Quickest time. Visual-verbal largely. 
Much unanalyzable. Apparently flexible. 
English instructor and graduate student in rhetoric. Not much 
of a talker and rather slow of speech. Use of words in writing 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 89 

unusually exact and discriminating. Not musical. Philosophical 
bent. 

Sc. 
I. Visual clear and unified. Organic not strong. Feeling of 
position and attitude strong. Verbal memory good. Some 
unanalyzable. Flexible. 
II. a. Highest time record. Record for correctness, oral low, 
written perfect. Method visual and vocal-motor, visual 
not very trustworthy, 
b. Time somewhat longer for 2 letters per second. Very 
good guesser. Method, visual and auditory-vocal-motor. 
Builds the word up out in front, sees it but not distinctly. 

III. For 6 items second group, for 9 items highest. Articula- 
tory and visual. Perseveration marked in recall. 

IV. Second group. Articulatory and visual. 

V. a. First group. Rhyming process. Some visual-verbal 

appearing. 

b. Second group, high. Probably visual supplemented by 
articulatory. 

c. First group. Very flexible. 

VI. Tried to remember pronunciation by remembering mean- 
ings. Probably auditory-vocal-motor. 

VII. High rank. Visual, and verbal in 10" exposure. Colors 
more vivid in recall than on cards. Seems to lack names for 
colors. Claims good color imagery. Accounts quite accu- 
rate and definite. Marked tendency to draw. Recalls come 
back definitely in visual imagery, much detail. Thinks 
names and visual images extremely closely connected. 
Puts down what he "remembers," rather than what he sees. 

Summary. 
I. Visual clear and unified. Motor strong. Good verbal mem- 
ory. Some unanalyzable. Flexible. 
II-VI. High record. Auditory-vocal-motor, visual-motor and 

articulatory. Much guessing. Very flexible. 
VII. High rank. Visual and some verbal. Coloros very vivid, not 



go ESTHER E. SHAW 

connected with words. Recalls, visual and detailed. Thinks 
names and visual images closely connected. Flexible. 
An instructor in rhetoric. Talks well, rather rapidly and a 
good deal. Writes easily and a good deal. Strong sense of 
humor. Uses a great many gestures. 

T. 

I. Visual-concrete clear, complex and unified. Suggested 

rather than directed by words. Does not get significance 
quickly from words. Good visual memory. Auditory. 
Some organic. Probably motor. Not very flexible. 

II. a. Good record in time and high correctness for oral. 

Written not so good, loses in both, 
b. Good record. Time longer for 2 letters per second. 
Visual. 

III. Second group for 6 items, higher for 9. Method articula- 
tory and visual-motor, improves by visual relationships. 

IV. Second group. Some visual imagery, method becoming 
more visual. Use of meanings. 

V. a. Third group. Visual imagery with auditory-vocal-motor. 
Slow, unused to rhyming. 

b. Second group. Visual supplemented by articulatory. 

c. Second group. 

VI. Auditory, aided by articulatory and some visual-concrete 

imagery. 
VII. Fair record. Visual, and probably motor. Makes her 
improvement between 2 and 4". Remembers colors very 
accurately. Record fairly accurate, not very full. Recalls 
come back as pictures. Very few errors. No verbal imagery 
recorded. 

Association Test. Average time 1.5 64". General verbal 
90%. Verbal phrases 15. 62 reactions apparently due to in- 
fluence of visual form of stimulus word. Concrete imagery 
6.3%. A little preceding. Imagery lengthens time 43%. 
Some verbal rivalry, more automatic tend to come. Some 
visual-verbal. Some reversed verbal, time not lengthened. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 91 

Summary. 
I. Visual-concrete clear and unified. Suggested by words 
rather than directed. Probably motor. Not very flexible. 
II.-VI. High record for visual processes. Auditory-vocal-motor 
slow, supplemented by artieulatory. Shows greater flexi- 
bility here. 
VII. Fair rank. Visual. Accurate color memory. Reports not 
very full. No verbal reported. Recalls as pictures. Prob- 
ably some loss in accuracy by association. 

Association Test. Medium time. Word to word associa- 
tion strong. Probably automatic verbal. Very little con- 
crete imagery. Some reversed verbal, time not lengthened. 
Imagery lengthened time 43%. 
a. of Group IV. The flower jug. Complex matter present in 
mind, feeling-toned. Recall of moist rather heavy air of a 
basement flower shop where it was bought. Earlier than 
recall of buying, saw the vase on a bookcase at home. 
Incidental introspections from T bear out the conviction that 
her thought is essentially wordless when the motive of direct 
communication is absent. One day after working on the experi- 
ment, she said that while a group of us were talking she saw out 
of the window three sophomores in a row go by, against the 
background of the Law Building, and was conscious of the odd 
and gay effect of the three red sophomore caps, without, she was 
certain, the presence of any verbal element until she undertook to 
tell me about the experience, when the words came quite auto- 
matically. At another time she said, "Look at that awful yellow 
coat ! Now I didn't have any difficulty saying that sentence. But 
if I had been alone, hadn't been trying to express myself to you, 
there wouldn't have been any sentence in my mind, or any words 
probably, just an idea.'' 

A zoologist. Writes a little, scientific papers and reports. Not 
talkative. Rather slow and deliberate of speech, but of enthu- 
siastic temperament. No musical ear. 

Ty. 

I. Visual-concrete when present clear, slow stages for move- 
ment. Attention to words. Smell, organic, and auditory 



92 ESTHER E. SHAW 

present. Feeling of position and attitude strong. Complex 
and feeling-toned unanalyzable impressions. Verbal mem- 
ory very good. 
II. a. Very high record in time and correctness. Visual. 

b. Highest time record. Shorter for 2 letters per second. 
Visual and auditory-vocal-motor mixed. Guesses. 

III. First group for 6 items, highest record for 9. Articulators, 
schematic relations, probably visual. 

IV. Second group. Some visual, method not systematic. 

V. a. First group. Auditory-vocal-motor, a little visual- 
concrete. 

b. First group. Auditory-vocal-motor and visual mixed. 
Visual reported most important. 

c. Third group. Possibly a visual preoccupation. Lack of 
discrimination. 

VI. No record. 

VII. High rank. Practically no improvement from 2 to 10". 
Visual, visual-motor, some verbal. Attention to color, to 
light and shade. Vivid colored imagery, brightnesses more 
likely to be right. Accounts quite distinct and accurate. 
Marked tendency to draw. Many feelings and impressions. 
Delayed recall, visual and some phrases. Images of de- 
layed seem firmer and clearer than those of immediate 
recall. Influenced by associations. 

Summary. 

I. Visual-concrete clear when present. Attention on words. 
Motor strong. Verbal memory good. Much unanalyzable. 

II-VI. Very high record except for V.c. Method visual or 
auditory-vocal-motor and visual mixed. 

VII. High record. Visual method. Distinct and accurate. Atten- 
tion to color and light. Some phrases in recall of cards. 
Tendency to idealize. Much unanalyzable. Allows herself 
to be directed by words, but takes only suggestions from 
visual-concrete stimulus. Verbal probably mostly auto- 
matic. 
A senior woman with decided literary talent, for both prose 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 93 

and verse. Musical and artistic. A lively talker and an enthusi- 
astic writer. Tendency to Kundgabe error. Instead of describ- 
ing her thoughts she expressed them, as it was the constant effort 
of her life to do. Especially noticeable and troublesome in the 
last set of tests. 

Y. 

I. Visual-concrete, definite, vivid, colored. Mainly concrete 
from stanza. Words unnoticed but directing. No rhythm. 
Probably faint auditory. Organic. Verbal memory fair. 
Some unanalyzable impressions, not feeling-toned. Inflexi- 
ble, visual-concrete. 
II. a. Slow. Mixed method, emphasis on visual but image a 
general one. Poor speller, 
b. Slow for 1 letter per second, much quicker for 2. 
Cumbrous visual method of reversal, worked so badly 
for 2 letters per second that she guessed. 

III. Very little success. Method articulatory and visual. 

IV. No record. 

V. a. Third group. Attention distracted by visual-concrete. 

b. Third group. Auditory, tested by visual. Apparent lack 
of vocal-motor complex. 

c. Third group. Inflexible. 

VI. First group. Auditory and visual-concrete principally. 
VII. High rank. Little change from 2 to 10". Visual. Very 
definite and accurate. Practically no verbal reported unless 
planning written expression. Thinks verbal does not help 
learning. Recalls came as pictures, "Saw the edges of the 
card." Images of delayed recall seem firmer and clearer 
than they were in the immediate. "I see perfectly." Ten- 
dency to idealize. 

Association Test. Average time 1.205". General verbal 
65%. Phrases 14. Very little indication of literary con- 
text or phrase. Concrete imagery 56%, many preceding; 
concrete delayed time only 4%. Rivalry of concrete images. 
A little visual-verbal. Good deal kinaesthetic and auditory. 
Reversed verbal time about the same or less. Many mean- 
ings in concrete form. Much unanalyzable. 



94 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Summary. 
I. Visual-concrete, definite, colored, unified. Words unnoticed 
but directing. Auditory but no rhythm. 
II- VI. Cumbrous visual methods. Attention distracted by visual- 
concrete. Auditory, but apparent lack of vocal-motor. 
VII. High rank. Visual. Little verbal imagery. Recalls card as 
such. Tendency to idealize. 

Association Test. Very quick time. Very little delayed 
by concrete imagery. Reaction words related to imagery 
rather than to stimulus word. Some kinaesthetic and audi- 
tory. Some unanalyzable. Images seem to be simple, many 
of them partaking of the nature of synecdoche, a part 
representing the whole. 
An English instructor, a graduate student in rhetoric. Charm- 
ing and vivacious talker and story teller, but with a curious 
drawling vocalization between words, particularly noticeable 
when she is thinking as she talks. A very good debater but a 
slow and laborious writer. Not musical. 

Y's quick time for the association test plus her lack of verbal 
record earlier and her non-automatic verbal record here may be 
explained by the extremely close relation both between images 
and words and between words and images wherever words are 
in evidence. In I, the words served simply to direct imagery; 
they did not anywhere seem to be much present as imagery — they 
are automatic motor reactions. A similar tendency though not 
nearly so marked is observed in S, Ev, By, and R, none of them 
so imaginal as Y. S and Ev have rather suppressed imagery and 
a good deal of unanalyzable content. By and R are more con- 
cerned with word to word associations, which are very weak for 
Y. All but Ev have very quick reaction times for this test, and 
Ev's reactions everywhere are slow. There is a group of subjects 
who have well developed associations between images, and well 
developed associations between words, without apparently much 
flexibility in passing from one to the other; most noticeable of 
these, perhaps, are T and Rg. H probably belongs to this class, 
but pays a good deal of attention to thes careful fitting of words 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 95 

to imagery — a slow process for her, probably of late development. 
E is somewhat similar, though with an engrossing interest in the 
imagery. Quick and automatic word associations characterize R 
and By, and probably, though they have no association test 
record, Sc and Ty. The last two have a great deal of imagery, 
approaching Y in that respect, and have certainly, like her, very 
close word-image-word relations. Their times in all tests are 
extremely quick. B has very verbal reactions of an automatic 
character, though very slow. She has a good deal of concrete 
imagery called up by words, but apparently the slowest reaction 
from image to word of any of the subjects. 

The following scheme, with the most imaginal at the left and 
the most verbal at the right, gives as much of a grouping, prob- 
ably, as can safely be made. 



E 


Rg 




Sc 


S 


A 


Y 


T 


H 


Ty 

B 


Ev 

Y 


B 

R 



Although it is true that types cannot be grouped except in the 
most general way, I think the diagnosis records show that for 
each individual a habit in the use of imagery does become evident, 
modified, naturally, by the nature of the different tasks, but show- 
ing, after all, pretty constant elements and combinations. I am 
inclined to think that Miss Fernald makes too much of the differ- 
ences in imagery for different tasks ; there is, in general, a pretty 
well defined complex of tendencies. Her grouping of flexible and 
inflxible, as between verbal and concrete imagery, seems to me 
to be a useful one. The more flexible of my subjects are S, 
Ev, R, and By, with an emphasis on verbal, and Y, and prob- 
ably Sc and Ty, with an emphasis on concrete imagery; the less 
flexible are A and B, with an emphasis on verbal, and H, T, Rg, 
and F, with an emphasis on concrete imagery. 



CHAPTER V 

Experiments Dealing with Verbal Expression and with 
the Mental Processes Preceding It. 

Description of the Experiments. 

The experiments of Groups III and IV were planned to 
provide material for the examination of a subject's speech and 
writing in relation to his imagery-complex ; and also of his men- 
tal processes from the arousal of an idea to its expression in 
definite verbal form, oral or written, more especially of the 
amount and character of the verbal imagery present. 

In Group III the picture postals were exposed on gray cards 
by means of an apparatus worked by cords, as simple and noise- 
less as possible. The subject's chair was set about six feet from 
the card. He was allowed to modify the distance slightly if he 
just naturally moved his chair. All the experiments described in 
this chapter were carried on in a neutral tinted room of many 
windows, designed especially for the control of lighting con- 
ditions. The work was done during the clear daylight hours of the 
winter and early spring of 19 16, the subjects coming at approx- 
imately the same hours each day. Nine subjects worked on these 
final tests. A stop-watch was used instead of a chronoscope be- 
cause it was felt to be less obtrusive, and because, since the ex- 
periment was concerned with such general conditions, the differ- 
ences in time shown by the watch seemed sufficiently exact. 
Other experiments should be made, dealing with more definite 
and minute portions of the process, and accompanied by a more 
exact time record. 

In the first series of Group III eight picture postcards, three 
in black and white and five colored, were used. This series was 
considered preliminary, to accustom the subjects to the apparatus 
and the general nature of the task, and the investigator to the 
characteristic variations and peculiarities in response of the sub- 
ject. The directions were as follows : "After I say Ready a pic- 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 97 

ture postcard will be exposed to view. Say the first thing that 
comes into your head to say about it." The cards were exposed 
at first for a definite period, say 4", but as the covering of the 
card seemed to serve as a distinct stimulus to speech-reaction — a 
sort of precipitating factor — hurrying it and confusing the sub- 
ject, they were later left exposed until the subject had spoken, 
really a much more natural situation. 

If the responses came in single words and short descriptive 
phrases, as they commonly did, the direction to respond with a 
complete statement was given with the fourth or fifth card. The 
time elapsing before speech was taken with the stop-watch, and 
occasionally the time occupied in saying the phrase or sentence. 
Introspections were asked for, covering the time from Ready to 
the beginning of speech, and further if anything significant 
occurred. 

Series 2 consisted of ten cards in groups of five each, chosen so 
that the cards of the two groups were as nearly similar as possi- 
ble in interest, and in type and complexity of subject. For the 
first five (2 a) the subject was asked to respond orally with the 
first complete statement, impression, opinion or the like, that 
came to mind, the word judgment being deliberately avoided; 
for the second five (2 b) he was asked to turn to the table as soon 
as he could write a complete statement and write it out. The 
expression of the sentence in both cases was followed immedi- 
ately by a written introspection covering the whole process, and 
times were taken at significant points. 

Series 3 was made up of four colored cards (Tuck's Oilette 
Series), which were shown with the following times and 
directions : 

1. Observe carefully. (Card exposed 5".) Write a brief 
description of the scene, such as might occur in a theme or a 
letter. 

2. Observe with a view to writing a brief descriptive theme. 
(Card exposed 5".) Write. 

3. Observe carefully. (Card exposed for 10".) Describe 
what is to you the most interesting thing about this picture. 



98 ESTHER E. SHAW 

4. Observe, in preparation to giving your impression after- 
ward in artistic written form. (Card exposed 10".) Write. 

The time spent in writing was taken with the stop-watch. 

In series 4, the cards were similar to those of 3, the directions 
were modified for expression in speech, and the description of 
the cards was oral. Times were noted by the investigator, and a 
shorthand account was taken by a stenographer in the next room 
(her presence unknown to the subject), so that the times and 
character of oral expression might be compared with those of 
written expression in series 3. 

In Group IV stimulus objects were exposed by turning on a 
light over a table in the next room, a darkroom, the room in 
which the subject sat being in darkness except for a little light 
which entered through one partly opened shutter. (A desk light 
was used at first but was not very satisfactory.) As the subject 
faced this light until he turned his head at the signal Ready, his 
eyes did not become especially adapted to the darkness. Four 
objects (a) were exposed, for 5" each, the exposure followed by 
a written description — a reproduction in words of the object or 
of the subject's impression of it, — preferably in a single sentence 
though it might be longer. Four objects (b) were then exposed 
with the direction that the subject was to react with the first sen- 
tence that occurred to him. Among the objects shown were two 
complicated pieces of apparatus from the psychological labora- 
tory, an 'antique' flower jug, carrots, an embroidered bag of 
Chinese workmanship, an ivory fan, two comical white china 
figures, a book with a brilliant red cover ornamented with gilt, 
and a shallow vase with a thin-stemmed pedestal. I feel that 
more could profitably be done with objects exposed in this way. 

This particular kind of reaction to stimulus — speech — offers the 
difficulty that not only must stimulus be offered, but in order to 
get typical and useful results the subject must have a motive for 
reacting to it in terms of speech. In general, the direction to 
respond in such and such a way, was not in itself sufficient. Mo- 
tivation in the sense of the presence of an audience was often 
given by the presence and evident interest of the investigator. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 99 

If the result is to be anything but mechanical, a feeling of some 
sort of vitality of connection between the audience and what is 
said to it is necessary, and is very difficult to achieve. The con- 
ditions of the experiment, therefore, though as far as possible 
under experimental control, were made as little mechanical, as 
much like ordinary human intercourse, as might be. The fact that 
I was well acquainted with most of my subjects was, I consider, 
a great advantage in this respect. Unless the conditions are 
comparable with those of ordinary intercourse, it seems inevitable 
that no real speech can result ; speech is emphatically a social af- 
fair and must be observed under social conditions. Then, too, in 
order to get any mental content capable of introspection, it was 
necessary to induce thought processes of some kind, the more 
original — that is, stimulated by unfamiliar scenes, objects, cir- 
circumstances — the better; for speech-motor responses to stimuli, 
like other motor responses, are very largely automatic, habitual, 
and therefore exceedingly hard to come at in consciousness. 
Throughout these experiments the motivation is the weak point ; 
for which reason it has seemed permissible to utilize, whenever 
they offered, the accidental, spontaneous reports of their mental 
processes that have come in from some of the subjects. Real 
thinking is at any rate done in the laboratory in connection with 
the task of introspection. 59 

Objective Results. 
The Time Records. 

The following table summarizes for all the experiments the 
results for the reaction times, that is, the times between the ap^ 
pearance of the stimulus and the beginning of speech or writing. 
The times are given in seconds. 

If the times for the spoken responses in this table are compared 
with those of the association test and other tests a considerable 
likeness appears. Sc, Ty, R, By are quick, in practically the 
same order; Ev, B, E are as before very much slower; T's 
time, especially for written response, is slower than her previous 
records would lead one to expect, and Rg's for oral response is 
rather surprisingly fast. 

59 See Wundt's position, Psychologische Studien, 1907, 3. 





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FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 101 

2 b affords the only available set of reaction times for written 
responses on which a comparison with the times for spoken re- 
sponses can be based. The times, as would be expected, are much 
longer than for oral responses, except in the case of E, who seems 
to write short sentences at something less than her oral average. 
She is, as a matter of fact, accustomed to expressing herself in 
writing rather than in speech, and talks slowly and haltingly. 
Sc, Ty, and By keep their places at the head of the list, B 
rises from eighth to fourth place, E from ninth to sixth. R and 
Rg fall from third and fifth to seventh and eighth respectively. 
It is evident if these results are to be accepted, and they agree 
in general with the other records, that B and E express them- 
selves more readily in writing, and that R and Rg do not express 
themselves in writing nearly so readily as they do in speech. If 
the per cent of increase in time for written (based on 2 b) as 
compared with spoken expression ( 1 , 2 a, and Group IV. b) is 
considered, three of the subjects are seen to add enormously to 
their time, Rg 346%, Ev 277%, R 160%. Rg and R are 
not accustomed to writing and show a great disinclination for it ; 
Ev is a writer and his long times may be attributed, in part at 
least, to his critical attitude toward his work. The increases of 
Ty and By, 90 and 83 %, may very likely be due in part to this 
same critical attitude, although there seems to be a normal in- 
crease for writing of at least 75%. E's time shows an actual de- 
crease of 4% ; if her time for continued speech were considered 
this decrease would be changed to a very slight increase. 

When the directions called for continued writing, say a para- 
graph or so as in 3, the subjects spent a considerably longer time 
in preparation. It seems probable from the introspections, that a 
kind of plan or 'feeling' of the whole is present in mind before 
this writing is undertaken. Preparation times for this experiment 
were not taken for the earlier tested subjects but those that were 
taken vary from 9" for Ty to over 30" for B and E and prob- 
ably considerably more for Ev. Some of the introspections show 
clearly the presence of a plan. 

The average length of time per word for sentences and con- 
tinued discourse has also been determined, though the data is 



102 ESTHER E. SHAW 

somewhat incomplete for the earlier tested subjects. The times 
for continued discourse include pauses of all sorts. The average 
time per word for spoken sentences (2 a) is .446", ranging from 
.245" for Sc to .83" for Ev; for continued discourse, it is 
considerably longer, .744", ranging from .5 38" for Rg to .95" 
for Ev and E. The times for writing single sentences (2b) 
average 1.88", and range from 1.5" for Ty, Rg, and By, to 
2.44" for Ev and 2.48" for R; for continued writing in the form 
of introspections the average is 2.7", minimum 1.8" for By, and 
maximum 3.8" for Ev; for continued writing with emphasis on 
literary expression (3), average 2.76", minimum 1.95" for By, 
the most practiced writer of them all, and maximum 3.48" for R, 
the most reluctant. On the whole, By, Ty, and B are relatively 
somewhat readier writers than speakers; R and Sc are much 
readier speakers than writers. Rg, T, E, and Ev show rela- 
tively little change. It should always be kept in mind that Ev, 
E, and B are essentially slow reactors. 





Average 


length of time per word, 


in seconds. 


From Group 


III. 




Spoken words 






Written words 






2a 




4 


2b 




3 


Intros 


E 


•4 




.674 


2.48 




348 


2-9 


E 






•949 






3-3i 


3.08 


Ty 


.41 




.832 


i-5 




2.12 


1.96 


B 






(•939) 






3.12 


2.57 


Rg 


•53 




.538 


1-5 




2.28 


2.8 


By 


.26 




•747 


1-5 




1-95 


1.8 


Sc 


•245 




.624 


1.9 




3.38 


3-29 


Ev 


.83 




•947 


2.44 




3-35 


3-8 


T 






.642 






2.52 


2.8 


Av 


.466 




•744 


1.88 




2.76 


2.7 



Nature of the Vocabulary. 

A rather mechanical investigation of the length in syllables of 
the words used in III, 2a and IV. b, oral, and III. 2 b, 3, and 
IV. a, written, was made by finding the per cent of words of two 
or more syllables used by each subject. For speech, the longer 
words run from 7.5 % of the total for E to 37% for R, with an 
average of 24%. For writing, the longer words run from 23% 
for T, to 37% for R, with an average of 29%. For T and By 
the per cent for spoken words is somewhat larger than for the 
written; for R, B, and Sc spoken and written are about the 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 103 

same; for the others, the per cent of long written words is more 
than twice that of long spoken. I should have supposed that 
the use of more long words in writing would be universal. 

A somewhat similar analysis was made of the verb element in 
the same experiments. A comparison of the per cents for III. 
2 a (spoken) and III. 2 b (written) shows that for all but Ev, 
and By, there is a smaller per cent of verbs in spoken than in 
written sentences. With the exception of R there is a smaller 
per cent of verbs in continued than in sentence-length written dis- 
course, an average of 23.6% in sentences, of 17.6% in con- 
nected discourse. R has for continued written discourse an 
unusually large per cent of verbs, 24; and E an ex- 
tremely large per cent in the written sentence, 38. In the 
spoken sentence Ev has a very large per cent, 36.7, the next being 
Rg with 28.7%. There would be a temptation to associate many 
verbs with highly motor types, were it not that B has very low 
per cents of verbs everywhere. A further discussion of the verb 
occurs in connection with the sentence later. 

The vocabulary used was studied very carefully, from the re- 
sults of experiments 2 and 3 of Group III, and of the experi- 
ments of Group IV. The particles, conjunctions, prepositions, 
pronouns, minor adverbs, and verbal auxiliaries, were omitted, 
and other words grouped according to the classes of the associa- 
tion test, 60 as objective, sensuous, attributive, connotative and ab- 
stract (least likely to arouse concrete imagery). The classifica- 
tion is far from ideal but it was at least consistently applied. 

Group IV, oral and written, was examined first. The average 
total number of words classified constituted 50.3% of the whole, 
of which the averages for each class were: objective 13.5%; 
sensuous, 6.4% connotative, 5.8%; attributive, 11.4%; and ab- 
stract 13.2%. The table below gives the per cents for each sub- 
ject, and in italic his relative standing when compared with the 
common average. The numbers giving the relative standing are 
based on differences of 1%. 

An analysis of these results would seem to show that E, Ty, 
and Rg have the most representative or concrete vocabulary ; R, 

60 See Appendix. Association Test. 



104 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Vocabulary table from IV. 



Ty 
Sc 
Rg 

T 
Ev 

B 
By 
R 



ob. 


s. 


attr. 


con. 


abs. 


tot.% 


iS-6% 


14.8% 


13-1% 


11.6% 


6.1% 


61.2 


2 


9 


2 


6 


-7 




12-5 


8.2 


14.I 


6.6 


5 


46.4 


—I 


2 


J 


J 


—8 




14.4 


2.7 


18.3 


6.2 


7-3 


48.9 


I 


-J 


r 


I 


—6 




15 


6.7 


14 


8.2 


10.9 


54-8 


I 


1 


3 


5 


-5 




13-8 


1.9 


10.3 


5-7 


13-7 


45-4 





—1 


— 1 










12.3 


4-3 


11 


9-3 


16.5 


53-4 


— I 


-5 





4 


5 




12.6 


.2.6 


10.5 


5 


18.9 


49.6 


—I 


—3 


— / 


— I 


5 




13-5 


6-3 


5-4 


4-3 


20.7 


50.2 








— 6 


—I 


7 




11.7 


4-5 


6.2 


1.6 


19.7 


437 


—2 


—I 


-5 


—2 


d 




13-5 


6.4 


11.4 


S$ 


13,2 


50.3 



Avs. 

By, and B the least. T's record is nearest to an average. The 
three most representative have been previously diagnosed as 
highly concrete in their imagery, Ty being also quite verbal. The 
three least representative are highly verbal. R and B have a 
good deal of motor imagery, By can be on occasion highly con- 
crete but tends to suppress such imagery, as does Ev, when 
reading. 

At this stage a similar analysis of the vocabulary in Group III, 
2 and 3 was undertaken, to see if it would substantiate these 
results. 

Vocabulary table from III. 3. 





ob. 


s. 


attr. 


con. 


abs. 


tot.% 


E 


16.8% 


2.9% 


10.2% 


2.9% 


12.6% 


45-4 




1 


—2 


I 


— I 


— 4 




Ty 


15-3 


3-4 


13 


7-9 


93 


48.9 







—I 


4 


4 


-/ 




Sc 


12.5 


1.9 


11 


4.8 


13-5 


43-7 




-3 


-3 


2 


1 


-J 




Rg 


13-5 


4.8 


7-8 


2.8 


16 


44.9 




—2 





—2 


—1 







T 


18.3 


5-9 


11.2 


4 


13.6 


53 




3 


I 


2 





-5 




Ev 


".5 


7-8 


4.9 


4 


19.8 


48 




—4 


3 


S 





4 




B 


18.8 





94 


1.8 


14 


44 




3 








— 2 


—2 




By 


12.3 


2.4 


7-8 


4.2 


19.7 


46.4 




—3 


—2 


—2 





4 




R 


18.7 


11.2 


10 


49 


24.9 


69.7 




3 


6 


I 


I 


P 




Ws. 


15-3 


5 


95 


4.1 


15-9 


49-8 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 105 

The results from the picture material are quite different in some 
cases. R makes here a representative record comparable to 
E's for object material, though he still retains his position as 
most abstract. E, although as before she is among the least 
abstract, has fallen off in per cent of representative words. Rg is 
considerably less representative here. Those who remain as 
before are Ty, in the most representative group, and By and B 
in the least representative. A consideration of both tables seems 
to warrant the following conclusions. R, Ev, By, all highly 
verbal, have the most abstract vocabulary ; Ty and E, very highly 
concrete, the latter non-verbal, the least so. Ty, E, and R, all 
highly concrete in imagery, though R is also highly verbal, have 
the most representative vocabulary; B and By, both very verbal, 
the latter very visual but tending to suppress visual imagery when 
dealing with words, have the least representative; T, Ev, Sc, 
and Rg occupy a middle position, all of them having considerable 
concrete imagery, Ev not so much in connection with words as 
the other three and more verbal. The results for Group III are 
probably more trustworthy, since 3 under that group involved 
a considerably larger amount of material than there is in 
Group IV. 

An examination of the sentences in Group IV as to emphasis 
and attitude shown gives some interesting results. Emphasis on 
color and light, E, Ty, and to a less degree, Ev, T, and Rg. 
Emphasis on shape, line, and size, R — size especially — Ev, Sc, 
and T and B not so marked. Emphasis on position, R and T, B 
and Ev not so marked. Literary association and connotation, 
marked for E, Ev, and Ty. Presence of other association, 
marked for T, less noticeable for Ty, and Ev. More purely 
scientific description, most noticeable in R, Sc, and B. Critical 
attitude, By, showing somewhat in Ty, and Sc. Attitude feeling- 
toned, E, and Ty, somewhat for T and Rg. An appreciation of 
use is noticeable in R and B. To a very marked degree these 
results are what might be expected from the diagnosis. (See 
diagnosis sheets, Chap. IV.) 



106 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Literary Excellence. 

The more careful and leisurely continued writing of 3, under 
Group III, and the sentences from Group IV, I undertook to 
grade as to literary excellence, as I would grade a set of themes, 
using the markings A, B, C, and D. Seven years of experience 
as a reader of themes ought to make such grading fairly reliable. 
For 3, the subjects ranked as follows: A, Ev, and E; A — , Ty, 
and By; B, Sc, and T; C, Rg and B; D, R. R's faults 
are lack of complete sentence form and poor organization of 
material; his vocabulary is good. Ty to a considerable degree 
gets a feeling of her own from the picture instead of what is 
there; the combination sometimes gives the impression of super- 
ficial feeling. By's critical tendency is very noticeable. B, pos- 
sibly because her phrasing is not due to habit and literary ex- 
ample, strikes out a few extremely effective descriptive phrases. 

For IV, a, written, E, Ty, and Ev are A; T and Rg, B to 
A; By, B; R, B, and Sc, C. T and Rg do much better with 
objects; Sc and to some extent By are less actively stimulated 
by them and write somewhat perfunctorily. When b, the oral 
expression, is considered a number of changes appear. By heads 
the list, followed closely by E and Ev; T and Ty are B; B 
and Sc, C; Rg and R, D. The difference as it shows here be- 
tween oral and written expression is, in general, what would be 
expected from the previous records. R, however, who is ordi- 
narily a rather fluent talker, responds here with simple word 
identifications. The fancifulness of E and Ty, I should not 
hesitate to attribute to their habit of dwelling a great deal upon 
concrete imagery. It is possible that Ev's comparative suppres- 
sion of definite concrete imagery goes hand in hand with his 
capacity for abstract thought. 

The oral discourse of 4, Group III, is of a very rambling and 
fragmentary nature. Ty, E, and By produce a little material of 
the standard of literary prose; T, B, and Rg are very frag- 
mentary; R's discourse, though connected, is very rambling; Sc 
and Ev stumble a good deal, though their sentences are fairly 
well constructed. Ev's oral expression, however, is far below his 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 107 

literary standard. The more fluent in this test, judged by aver- 
age time per word, are Rg, Sc, T, and R, in that order; the 
least fluent, the slow trio, B, Ev, and E. By's record here is 
slow, but he was fatigued when the test was made. If the com- 
parative number of words to each stimulus card is considered, it 
is seen that Rg, though she speaks quickly, says much the least; 
R and Sc are not only quick but say by far the most ; E, though 
very slow, says a great deal, and Ev is not only slow but says 
little. It is safe to' say that R and Sc are fluent; that Ev and 
Rg are not; and that E is at least talkative. The general char- 
acter of the content accords with this judgment. The test, 
however, was not very satisfactory. It should be repeated under 
something more like ordinary conversational conditions. 

In general, those subjects show literary excellence who would, 
from the work they have chosen to do and the training they have 
had, be expected to show it. T, however, shows literary promise, 
and Sc for these quick responses shows remarkably little of the 
excellence which he really achieves in expository writing. 

Mental Content Preceding Expression. 
One of the main reasons for giving the tests of Groups III 
and IV was to see how much could be learned about the amount 
and character of verbal imagery present before expression in 
word or sentence occurred. It was felt, moreover, that some 
light would be thrown upon the processes of thought and prob- 
ably some upon the genesis of the sentence. 

Verbal Imagery. 

The following examples will give some idea of the amount 
and character of verbal imagery, and also of the differences in 
these regards between the subjects. The responses are in italic, 
words reported present in mind are quoted. 

E. III. 1. Arch of Titus. Rome. No verbal imagery. 
Picture sort of came alive — there was a marble arch. Identified 
by word. 

Row of tents. No response. (Had been asked to respond 



108 ESTHER E. SHAW 

with a sentence. At end of about 15" moved as if to write but 
nothing came. At 20" was asked for introspection. ) I liked the 
grays in it. Then I recognized the objects and vivified the pic- 
ture. I did not feel like saying anything. I heard vague circus 
music like that in Peter Grim. 

2b. Children playing. The falling of the cover card at 5" 
was certainly a signal to write, seemed to break into her train of 
thought. She remembered a situation — concrete imagery — and 
heard the sentence said to her by the old woman who said it 
before. Signorina, lei vuole andare la. 

V. b. Vase. 5" exposure. No response. First I made out the 
shape of the vase ; then I saw it was like a very spread out white 
flower with a broad calyx which grew close to the ground. Then 
I began to think of the verse in the Rubaiyat about the tulip, and 
could get nothing but fragments. 

T. III. 7. Arch of Titus. Woman in brightly colored clothes. 
First thing was a general impression of a "gate" in Italy or Pales- 
tine or the like. Found picture pleasant. Liked particularly the 
blue. Word "Trojan" came up distinctly, quite different from the 
masses of words present in the mind in connection with picture. 

2. a. Steamer at Charlevoix. 2" exposure. / was surprised 
at smoke arising. I don't believe that I think in complete 
sentences. 

The smoke seemed to produce a division of the picture and a 
sharp contrast between that and the blue water. There is some- 
thing on the right, a dock or another boat. The struggle to make 
a sentence was great enough to drown the details of the picture. 
. . . The sentence forming was difficult, only two or three words 
coming, like "black smoke,'' "boat," "smoke," etc. I didn't have 
much difficulty writing this in sentences though. 

IV a. Carrots. 5" exposure. Remember saying "carrots" to 
myself. Thought of grocery store (mixed verbal and visual). 
Saw baskets on floor very indefinitely. May have sort of halfway 
said "grocery." 

Rg. III. 7. Row of tents. 2" exposure. Gray. Realized that 
was supposed to say something — no words. Attention was on 
color. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 109 

2 b. Luxor. Turned 6". Saw stone figure and started to say- 
something about it, but it didn't work, just a feeling. Then saw — 
ladies with roofs on their heads. Then sentence came, knew it 
wasn't right, 61 but association of classical architecture had been 
called up. This is a picture of the Parthenon. 

Bay of Naples. — Turned 13". Confused feeling of too much 
in the picture to pick out anything to describe. Started to use 
the city. Then tried to put in the mountain. Began "Picture of a 
city by the mountains" realized it wasn't a sentence and said to 
myself — "Oh dear, I can't think of a sentence," realized it was the 
first sentence definitely thought of so had to put down, feeling sort 
of trapped. 

IV. b. Owl and Figure. (Forgot instructions.) A kind of 
confused searching for a name — with "The Owl and the Pussy 
Cat" somewhere in the back of my mind, but knowing it was not 
at all the name of the objects. 

Ev. III. 1. Delphica. That's Michael Angelo's. I had cer- 
tain of his painted prophets and sibyls in mind at once, and was 
trying to identify this. 

2 b. Japanese Children. Turned 5", began to write 13". 
Twins — not twins because one is taller — Japanese children. I 
think this is something like the order of my first thoughts, al- 
though I am not sure how much of it was really thought in words. 
I am sure that "twins" and "Japanese" were, before I turned to 
write. Second item was probably just an image — not in words — 
an impression of relative size translated into words. 62 Often 
parts of thoughts are in words, and part in other faint impres- 
sions. (In general visual not verbal imagery is suggested by the 
cards to this artist.) 

IV. b. Book. Those are birds — aren't they? Had to force self 

61 Other cases of censorship: Ty. Steamer at Charlevoix, p. no; B. 
Canal, p. in; R. Vase, p. 117. The matter of censorship is discussed by 
Pillsbury, The Mental Antecedents of Speech, p. 121. 

62 Pillsbury's statement, "There is never or extremely rarely a sequence of 
ideas that comes before speech and can be said to be sufficiently detailed to 
be translated into words" (Mental Antecedents of Speech, p. 121) is too 
sweeping for the results of these experiments. See Ev. Book, p. 109; Sc. 
Apparatus, p. no; R. Children playing, p. in. 



no ESTHER E. SHAW 

to say. Quite consciously the sort of thought that you think for 
your own benefit. Didn't have that thought to communicate, but 
was trying to identify the little flecks. Little bit more aware of 
turning it into words. Effort was thing noticed, and afterward a 
feeling that it should have been a question. 

Sc. III. i. Delphica. 3". Picture in a gallery evidently. . . . 
It's a. . . . can't make that out. Think I had the word "classic" in 
mind. Roman or Greek. Felt ashamed because not able to place 
her immediately. What does she mean? Can't name her. Arms 
attracted attention. Turned to printing, to last word. This was 
practically little snatches of statement, a good many of the nouns 
are here as words — they're not complete — very, very short things. 
Don't call in all the words that would use in expression. 

IV. b. Apparatus i. 8". / see an instrument of some sort. 
(Sentence faded out at the end.) Distinct jump from getting the 
thing and having it ready to express, and expressing it. The 
jump to expression, 'terming' the thing, a process I wouldn't go 
through unless I were going to express. I think we go about 
getting things like that all the time without naming. Satisfied 
with general nature of it and ready to quit, when it occurred to 
me that I was to put it in a sentence. Then it didn't mean much 
to me. 

Ty. III. 1. Bullock cart. 3". Japanese — or Javanese — or — 
Filipino or Cuban. 6". Something tropical. Saw man's hat right 
away, Japanese — and bullock, then palm trees in background. 
No words attached. No words found except those spoken. 
Didn't think when I said it where Java was or what it was like. 
Began to collect a geographical scene when said Filipino — to< put 
elements of picture together and notice of what region they were 
characteristic. Thought palm trees more appropriate to Cuba. 
The last thing I remember was — what under the sun is in that 
cart? Not words — just a general sense of puzzling wildly, try- 
ing to get something the fruits looked like. 

2 a. Steamer at Charlevoix. 2". It is a boat. After Ready, 
conscious of modeling sentences like "This is green," etc. Card 
appeared. Pretty blue harbor. Nice light-house. The "smoke" 
would be very nice to say something about. (None of this repre- 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION in 

sents words except "smoke".) I was amazed to hear myself 
saying Boat — hadn't the remotest idea I was going to use that 
word ; in fact, I was trying so hard to think what kind of a boat 
it was that I felt the word to be inadequate if not inaccurate. Felt 
regret that I did not say something about the smoke. 

By. III. i. Row of Tents. 3". Plattsburg. Word "tents" 
was the first word, and "summer camp" came into head. "Platts- 
burg'' came, spoken before thought of, absolutely, unconscious as 
could be. Was surprised at word when it came out. Afterward 
thought of military camp at Plattsburg. 

Arch of Titus. 2". That is an arch of triumph. I thought it 
without any hesitation, or any intermediate steps. While saying 
it, identified the figure as a modern Italian peasant, and so had 
the conviction that the picture was a Roman ruin. "Hadrian" was 
indirectly concerned in the latter part of my thinking as a definite 
word image. 

R. III. 1. Bullock Cart. 2.8". Country. Had no time to 
think. It was green. 

English, Doorway. 2.8". Spain. Looked southern. "Spain" 
present in mind, felt like muscles working in cortex. 

2 a. Steamer at Charlevoix. 3" — 5.8". Well — this reminds 
me of Long Branch. "Atlantic City" was an alternative, very 
present and probably verbally. 

2 b. Children Playing. Turned 3.5", writing at 6". These 
children are playing a game of which I never was very fond. 
Verbal element came in concomitantly with seeing and recollect- 
ing. Had most of it in phrases pretty much in mind before 
wrote. "These" occurred after turning. 

Luxor. Turned 3", writing at 7". Alexandria is a very filthy 
city. "Egypt," "Alexandria," "filthy," present verbally, and gen- 
eral background of unsanitary conditions which I had been read- 
ing about. 

B. III. 1. Delphica. 2". Woman. Looking frantically for 
something to say when the word spoken popped suddenly, — 
seemingly from nowhere. 

2 a. Canal. 9". That's a pretty drive. "Drive" came up first. 



H2 ESTHER E. SHAW 

then "pretty drive," "water," "horse," "pretty horse and buggy," 
was about to say this when thought verbally, "but it isn't a pretty 
horse and buggy." "Pretty horse," but this was not complete so 
looked for something else. Didn't want to say pretty anything, 
for it sounded silly. Then thought "drive" again and a feeling of 
push came as I realized the passing of time, and got the above. 

IV a. Apparatus. Exposed 7", began to> write 44". 

The object this time is a piece of apparatus for study of tones, 
and is called a siren. Followed by drawing. Recognized as piece 
of our apparatus. Verbal, "what is the brute anyway?" Prob- 
ably verbal, "piece of electrical apparatus," had some of the 
feeling of the place it came out of. First thought of "tone" 
(verbal way down), then "siren." When started to write had a 
hunch it wasn't electrical. "Don't believe that is electrical." 
Words may have followed idea in mind, but so far as I can tell 
they accompanied or were the idea. 

These introspections speak for themselves and give an idea not 
only of the amount and character of the verbal imagery for the 
different subjects, but of the other mental content preceding 
expression. If by thought "present as a whole in consciousness 
before the first word was reached," 63 Wundt means, as he seems 
to, something total or unitary that precedes the observation in 
the mind of any imaginal details, or any development of the 
thought, then the subjects do not report it, — if present it was not 
described as part of the imagery content, and could be only an 
unanalyzable consciousness, of a relationship perhaps. On the 
other hand, Pillsbury's 64 anticipatory or preliminary intention 
seems to be lacking also, though it is somewhat a question of in- 
terpretation. The Aufgabe may represent here "the general in- 

63 "In such self-observations it became perfectly clear to me that the thought 
was not formed during the process of its verbal expression, but was present 
as a whole in consciousness before the first word was reached. At first 
none of the verbal or other images, which subsequently appeared in running 
through the thought and giving it expression, was present in the focus of 
consciousness, but these parts of the thought appeared successively as the 
thought was allowed to develop." (Incidental introspection during spon- 
taneous thought.) Wundt, Psychologische Studien, 1907, 3, p. 349, quoted by 
Woodworth, A Revision of Imageless Thought, p. 2. 

6 *Pillsbury, The Mental Antecedents of Speech. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 113 

tention to express something." 65 The "preliminary intention to 
express some particular thing, which is indicated by a most 
general mental content that means the thing in the vaguest way/' 66 
is perhaps reported in the experience of Sc (Luxor, p. 116), 
who thinks he "really got Egyptian the first thing and then justi- 
fied it"; though I suppose this might also be interpreted as the 
total idea of Wundt ! The differences between the results of these 
experiments and the conclusions of Wundt and Pillsbury may be 
due to the fact that they are considering abstract thought, where- 
as the material of these tests is concrete — in them the thing at- 
tended to may furnish the preliminary unifying idea. Thought 
seems, in many cases, as Wundt says, not to be "formed during 
the process of its verbal expression" ; for instance, T says, "when 
I turned to write had that thought and had it in that order — 
hadn't said it as sentence to myself." In her case, and in Ev's 
(Japanese Children, p. 109), and in other cases where censor- 
ship takes place, notably T's on p. 118, Amalfi, there is indi- 
cated the presence of some sort of plan, or idea used for refer- 
ence, which is not the sentence as expressed. In other records, 
by highly verbal types, there seems to be nothing that can be 
discovered previous to speech or wording (By. Fan, p. 122). 

What Wundt means by "running through the thought and 
giving it expression" may occur in experiences like B's, p. in, 
Canal, or R's, p. in, Children Playing. Shall this sort of 
thing be called analysis or development? I am inclined to agree 
with Pillsbury that "The course of each thought is really much 
more a development of its meaning than a mere analysis of what 
was present in it." 67 B's report on Apparatus, p. 112, seems to 
be of the nature of the development of an identification. Intro- 
spections may be interpreted variously; probably Wundt and 
Pillsbury are interpreting similar experiences in their descriptions 
of the mental antecedents of speech. It seems obvious, at any 
rate, that mental content preceding speech varies for the same 
subject, and from subject to subject — is rather an infinitely vary- 

65 Ibid., p. 120. 

66 Ibid., p. 121. 

67 Ibid., p. 125. 



H4 ESTHER E. SHAW 

ing process than any set procedure. On this point I think the 
introspective records may be left to speak for themselves. Some- 
times, and this is apparently typical of verbals, there is not only 
no preliminary or total idea but no analysis or development ap- 
parent; the subject's spoken words seem to be all the trace there 
is of the thought, an automatic reaction to something not ob- 
served (By. Arch of Titus, p. in; B. English Doorway, p. 
119; Ev. Children Playing, p. 121.) Sometimes a good deal 
of concrete imagery and fragments of words and phrases precede 
speech (Sc. Delphica, p. no, Luxor, p. 116; Ty. English 
Doorway, p. 116, Castle and Swans, p. 117). The formulation 
of the sentence in words before speaking (Ty. Apparatus, p. 
117) is, in these experiments, extremely rare. I think Pillsbury 
underestimates the amount of concrete imagery preceding speech, 
but here again the difference may be due to the abstract nature 
of the thought he is considering, or to his own mental type. 

The purely automatic character of much verbal reaction, that 
is, the lack of conscious imagery preceding it, is clearly demon- 
strated. Everywhere the process of wording itself seems auto- 
matic, incapable of introspection. The most one can do is, as 
Pillsbury says, "to pass upon this product as to its adequateness 
to the purpose in hand." 68 This automatic character applies to 
sentences as well as to words and phrases ; there are, as it were, 
automatized sentence "patterns," to which our thought has been 
adapting itself since our earliest experience with speech. 

All the subjects are at least somewhat automatic in their verbal 
reactions, all are somewhat verbal in thought content; but there 
are individual differences. B, Ev, R, and Sc are noticeably 
verbal in thought, R and Sc also noticeably automatic in reaction, 
as are By, Ty, and, less markedly, T and Rg. By and 
T are comparatively verbal in thought, though more automatic. 
E shows least evidence of either; the verbal content of her mind 
seems to consist largely of quotations and the like, and though 
-talkative, she has very slow reaction times and rate per word. 

68 Pillsbury, The Mental Antecedents of Speech, p. 121. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 115 

Judgments. 

It is impossible to ignore the fact that many of these reactions, 
if not, indeed, all of them, represent judgments. They range 
from a simple automatized identification or recognition to the 
expression resulting from elaborate though rapid processes of 
consideration of evidence. To those that have been given, the 
following, perhaps more clear cut, may be added. 

The simple identification. (See E, Arch of Titus, p. 107; 
Ty. Steamer at Charlevoix, p. no.) 

B. III. 1. Snow Scene. Brown City. Identification. Forgot 
about the sentence instruction, and responded with the first thing 
that came. 

Ty. III. 1. Amalfi. Amalfi. Thought of word the moment 
I saw it. 

Ev. III. 2 b. Luxor. Turned 4". That is in Cairo. He 
thinks simply the words "in Cairo" had come when he turned. 

Verification present. ( See By. Arch of Titus, p. in; Ev. 
Delphica, p. 109.) 

T. III. 2 b. Bay of Naples. Turned 4". That's Vesuvius. 
The card was nice. I noticed the yellow houses in the foreground 
and the lake, and the nice colors in the sky. Sort of squinted to 
see if the mountain in the background was a smoking mountain 
— it reminded me of pictures of Vesuvius. Then I cast about for 
a sentence, though it came more easily than usual. I think per- 
haps wonder about smoke was good sentence material, but I am 
sure it didn't come to words. 

Sc. III. 1. Arch of Titus, i". That's the picture of an arch. 
Had the word "triumphal" in mind, think I dropped it to save 
time. Idea of Roman triumphs, dimly, not verbal. Felt big 
background of things in there, sort of sifting around. Thought 
also of fact that it was Italy — of fitness of arch to Italy. Noticed 
the peasant girl in foreground, strengthened Italian impression. 
Spoke. (This is a very good illustration of the enormous amount 
of suppression or exclusion of mental content at the point of 
expression. ) 

Judgments rising out of feeling. 



Ii6 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Ev. III. i. Bullock Cart. 3". It's cruder than the last one. 
It carried a distinct impression of cheaply-colored-photograph. 

Rg. III. 1. Inverness Street. 2". I don't like it. 

By. III. 2 a. Amalfi. / expected that to be colored. When 
I thought before the picture was shown that I wished to change 
the form in which I had been making statements, I thought of 
the noticeable green in the last picture shown, and was planning 
to respond in some way to the color of the picture. When it 
came I felt somewhat confused and expressed my confusion in 
the sentence. 

These judgments seem to be almost, it not quite, as immediate 
as the identifications ; they represent feeling in some way, rise out 
of the presence of a personal element in the reaction, such as 
surprise, confusion, approval, or dislike. 

More elaborate forms of judgment. (See Ev. Japanese 
Children, p. 109; Ty. Bullock Cart, p. no; B. Apparatus, 
p. 112.) 

Sc. III. 2 b. Luxor. Turned 1.6". {That is) the picture of 
an Egyptian temple. Spent most of my time trying to get the 
proper national adjective. Had Greek and Roman art in mind. 
Decided from character of figure in foreground and of columns 
(bigness and roundness in figure and in columns felt to be Egypt- 
ian) that it was Egyptian. Did this roughly. Then decided to 
call it "temple" because those ruins mostly are. Turned, got 
"That is,'' and wrote. 

"Temple" is the only thing he is sure he named. Thinks really 
got Egyptian the first thing and then justified it. Thinks he 
didn't have words for Greek and Roman, just an other-arts- 
peculiar-to-regions-down-there feeling. Talked while writing — 
"I don't think in sentences. I don't gather my material in 
sentences." 

Ty. III. 1. English Doorway. \f'-2,z". That door — It's an 
English door — some kind of late Gothic. Pretty color — general 
impression but not a word. "Writing is upside down." Why? 
Fountain surrounded by "flowers." Is it a door or an archway? 
Thought of a door in "Martha Cook," visual. Kind of bringing 
evidence to bear. "Tower'' and skyline are battlemented. What 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 117 

kind of doorway is that? Had other words I don't remember. 
Forgot directions somewhat. 

2 a. Castle and Swans. 3". Not Chillon. . . .Has composi- 
tion of usual views of Chillon, but that is not ruinous as this is, 
and is different color and is right on edge of lake. Visual, com- 
parison of this picture with one I have of Chillon. I was not 
conscious of having to make a sentence, but the moment I said it 
I realized I had no verb in it. Neither saw nor heard the word 
Chillon. 

IV. b. Apparatus. What in the world! It's the back of some- 
thing interesting (not words, it looks dusty and dingy and regu- 
lating), how perplexing. "What in the world" on two distinct 
occasions before said it aloud. I think it wasn't articulated. 

By. II. 2 b. Children Playing. Turned at 3.5" and began to 
write. That little boy is larger than my son. The figure of the 
boy attracted my attention because of its position in the focus of 
the picture. I thought immediately of my own son who is per- 
haps a year younger than the boy in the picture. I had a very 
vague impression of him in an overall suit. While writing it 
down wanted to extend it but restrained myself ; realized that a 
great deal had been added to thought content since the statement 
first occurred. 

III. 1. Delphica. 3". Michael Angelo. The picture aroused 
only a desire to identify it with a certain artist. I had a confused 
idea that the picture looked like the Medici statues of Michael 
Angelo. (Did not think it was, one of them, but have a sort of 
schematic abstraction about a lot of artists in my mind, and 
think of those pictures as representative of Michael Angelo.) 
And felt sure that he was the painter, although I was not sure of 
any further facts. 

R. IV. b. Vase. Oh, dish. For a moment cast around for 
technical word and didn't find it. Wanted to say "goblet," but it 
was not transparent; had "basin" in mind too, and "fountain" . . . 

B. Ill 2 b. Pere Marquette Flyer. Turned 3", writing 
5". The train's on the track. Had a feeling of wreck, I suppose 
from the smoke. It did not come up as a word — just an indefi- 
nite. Then thought of possible location of scene — "California" 



n8 ESTHER E. SHAW 

(verbal), and then west (indefinite). Idea of train wreck was 
in the background of consciousness and this sentence came up. 

These processes of judgment are evidently carried on in many 
cases up to the point of expression, without words or with only 
an isolated word here and there, and with the aid of much 
concrete imagery. They come to expression in a single word or 
phrase as readily and satis fyingly as in a sentence. There does 
not seem to be any peculiar or necessary connection between a 
judgment and the sentence form or the presence of a verb. 69 
Judging from the introspections and the statements of a number 
of the subjects, thought not only does not have to take place in 
related verbal form., or sentences, but it rarely does so take place. 
The verb, moreover, seems to be the least essential, the most arti- 
ficial, part of the expression, at least in connection with this sort 
of material, where it is with few exceptions, whether present or 
understood, a form of to be. 70 (See Sc. p. 116; Ev. pp. 115, 
119; B. p. 119; and Ty. p. 119). The verb that is distinctly 
the name of an action may occupy a different position; if the tests 
had called out narration the results might have been different. 
The exceptions to to be, mentioned above, occur in connection 
with the presence of feeling, where the verb represents the essen- 
tial thing in the judgment, the feeling. That is, the verb does not 
represent an assertion, it is not a criterion of judgment. 

Genesis and Form of the Sentence. 

1 add a few more introspections bearing more particularly on 
the genesis and form of the sentence. 

Rg. III. 2 a. Amalfi. 3". "Monk" was the first word that 
came; then seeing stream I connected the two by saying, Monk 
is sitting by the stream. 

T. III. 2 a. Amalfi. 5". A rather gray sky was the thing 
that impressed me. Could have said sky was grey color, but that 
wasn't what I was thinking of, and wouldn't reproduce my 
thought. 

2 b. I am conscious from the beginning that I have to make 

69 Messer, Untersuchungen iiber das Denken, pp. 96, 105. 

70 Meader, The Development of Copulativ Verbs. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 119 

a sentence. Think the sentence "I've got to make a sentence" is 
in a way verbally present. When the picture comes the idea of 
making a sentence is overshadowed by the desire not to make a 
kindergarten sentence. 

B. IV. b. Owl and Figure. The first thing was a youngster 
and then an owl. With signal Ready looked into outer room and 
could just distinguish a patch of white and thought that must be 
object, so watched there. Had hazy idea of a cup, though was 
not aware of this, until I found it was not a cup, when I felt 
slightly disappointed. Had the feeling of recognition and 
"youngster" popped into mind. Turned to other object, "owl" 
came. Then thought — indistinct verbal — "you must react." 
Meantime "youngster' 5 and "owl" had been running in my mind,, 
so I said it. 

III. 1. English Doorway. 5". A beautiful square sprang up 
and escaped before I could notice whether it was complete or not. 

2 a. Steamer at Charlevoix. 2". That's the steamier at 
Charlevoix. Recognition. "Steamer" came to mind first, al- 
though . I was conscious at the same time of water and pier. 
Thought "I have to have a complete sentence," and got "Steamer 
at Charlevoix," which was again censored and "That's the" 
added. 

Ty. (See III. 2a. Castle and Swans, p. 117.) 

Comment on 2 of IV a. No sentence tendency at all. When 
I have to write sentences always have to stop and think what kind 
of a verb would be nice. That's what makes a sentence get writ- 
ten slowly — have to fuss about the verb. 

Ev. IV. a. Chinese Bag. I continually safe-guarded myself 
toward having a sentence before I expressed any detail. "It 
zvas a piece of fancy work — followed by participial phrase twenty- 
three words long. 

Book. Those are birds — aren't they? Had to force myself to 
say. Quite consciously the sort of thought that you think for 
your own benefit, didn't have it to communicate. But was trying 
to identify the little flecks. Little bit more aware of turning it 
into words. 

The presence or absence of a principal verb in these responses 



120 ESTHER E. SHAW 

from III. i and 2, and the difficulty revealed by introspection in 
achieving a verb, correspond closely to the subject's per cent of 
verb element for spoken responses (based on III. 2 a and IV. b) 
and almost as well, Ty not having the success that might be 
expected, to his per cent for written responses (based on III. 2 b 
and 3, and IV. a). Ev, By, R, and E are the most successful 
in getting complete sentences and have the highest per cents ; Ty, 
B, Sc, and Rg have the lowest per cents and Ty, B, and Rg the 
greatest difficulty, Sc, a very flexible type, not so much. 

I was interested at this point to see if any connection would 
appear between these results for individuals and Meader's 71 
statement for peoples : "It is especially among peoples whose 
thinking is of a concrete tipe that we find specific forms of copu- 
lativ expressions least developt." In the first place it should be 
noted that the subjects are dealing with very concrete material, 
and that this may account for their difficulty in achieving com- 
plete sentences, in using the more abstract verbs. From the ex- 
amination of vocabulary (pp. 103-105) and from other classifi- 
cations, the highest proficiency with the copula would be ex- 
pected of R, Ev, By, and B; the least of E, Ty, Rg, and possi- 
bly T. The subjects actually most successful at sentence- forming, 
and to a large extent this means a ready use of the copula, are, 
as we should expect, R, Ev, By, and, as we should not expect. 
E. This exception may be explained in part by E's being a very 
slow and self-conscious reactor in these experiments, and given 
in ordinary conversation to talking as she would write, that is, in 
a rather literary and formal fashion. Those who have most 
difficulty with sentence- forming are Ty, Rg, to a less extent T, 
as we should expect, and B, whose record is verbal and abstract. 
In partial explanation of B's lack of success it should be remem- 
bered that she is a reluctant speaker and writer at any time, and 
an inflexible type. The matter is an interesting one for 
investigation. 

The connection between achieving a sentence and having a 
motive for communication or expression comes out very clearly. 
When there is no such motive there is likely to be "a wild clawing 

71 Meader, The Development o£ Copulative Verbs, pp. 197. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 121 

for a sentence," though to some subjects expression is so habitual 
a process that this extreme is avoided. Sometimes the desire to 
express an idea or opinion to the investigator has a motivating 
effect. The situation which most easily produces a sentence in 
this work, and is likely to produce one of other than "kinder- 
garten" variety, is one that is in some way feeling-toned. The 
verb is present because it is representative of the reaction. 

In III. 4, where there was a continual oral response, there is a 
very noticeable tendency to omit the verb, especially forms of 
the verb to be. This tendency, here as elsewhere, is particularly 
noticeable in pure, or passive, description. In T's description of 
the Fountain there are two main verbs and one participle in 
ninety words. In By's oral descriptions, which were unusually 
well organized with many somewhat complicated sentences, the 
more purely descriptive sentence occurs without a verb,, which if 
there would be a form of to be, four times out of twenty sen- 
tences. The presence of feeling, here also, seems to be an ener- 
gizing factor; Rg, who is especially given to omitting verbs in 
both oral and written discourse, when she reacts to The Two 
Boats says "That is very pretty. I like that. I like the sunset 
line and the water," etc. 

All the previously unquoted responses that might have been 
affected by the presence of feeling follow. They are marked by 
quick times and the presence of a verb. 

Rg. III. 1. Inverness High Street. 2". I don't like it. An- 
tagonism was to task — sentence making — not to the picture. Had 
a feeling of wanting to push it away. 

By. III. 2 b. Pere Marquette Flyer. Turned 2". I like 
the green color in that picture. Verbal image of "green" present 
before speaking. 

Ev. III. 2 b. Children Playing. Turned 4", wrote 8". 
That is a funny little chap. Sentence came naturally and I was 
not conscious of any process of formation. 

T. III. 2 b. Pere Marquette Flyer. Began to write 3". 
That's a nice train and the water in the lake seems to curve down 
toward the track. This picture was more interesting and at- 



122 ESTHER E. SHAW 

tractive. I think the sentence came quite quickly and verbally. I 
had an opinion about the picture, was not conscious of any strug- 
gle. When I turned to write had that thought and had it in that 
order — hadn't said it as sentence to myself. 

E. III. 2 a. Steamer at Charlevoix. 4". / wish I was on 
that boat. Imagery reported visual-concrete and unanalyzable. 

Ty. IV. b. Owl and Figure. 2." ' . Oh cutey! Saw the word 
at the same time as said it. All three processes (including look- 
ing at figures) going on at once. 

Rg. IV. b. Apparatus. 2". Started to say, Oh I don't like 
it, but changed after don't to I can't make it out. Rg reports 
that the psychological effect on her of these experiments is quite 
different from that of the cards, the attitude of receptiveness is 
different. "The way it comes — it is distinctly pleasurable. May- 
be because they are objects and not cards, but I rather think it is 
in the completeness of the way they appear, the suddenness, no 
distraction. There was a feeling of life about the process." 

By. IV. b. Fan. The first impression of the fan was a feel- 
ing of pleasure which had nothing whatever to do with words or 
any formulation of thought. Even when I began to say what I 
did I was still "enjoying" the fan more than thinking about it. 
I was not sure as I spoke that there was any sense in what I was 
saying. / suppose ifs an added beauty to intricate design to 
have it made of something very solid like ivory. (Directed to 
take his time. Finished in eleven seconds. ) 

The lack of verbs is undoubtedly due in part to the conditions 
of the experiment: to a feeling of hurry due to the timing, to the 
lack of ordinary conversational motive, to the fact that descrip- 
tive writing is asked for in several tests, and in others is natur- 
ally called out by the concrete material and the situation. Before 
any valid conclusions could be drawn as to the presence of verbs 
in oral discourse, at any rate, experiments which would tend to 
bring out a different kind of comment would have to be arranged. 



CHAPTER VI 

Conclusions. 

From the results in Chapters II, III, and IV, it seems evident 
that the imagery type, or type-group, of an individual, though 
complex and varying somewhat from task to task, may yet be 
determined, and determined with sufficient clearness to make 
possible a rough grouping of individuals. A study of these types 
and groups in relation to the verbal expression of the subject and 
the mental processes preceding it may, then, be undertaken. 

Can any influence of these types upon expression in language 
be observed? 

From the results of the experiments described in Chapters III 
and V it may be said that the imagery type affects expression in 
language somewhat with reference to the type of vocabulary. I 
have always doubted the validity of the tests made on school chil- 
dren by Stern, 72 Colvin, 73 and others, by which the imaginal type 
of the child was determined from the types of words preferred. 
Such a test would, of course, be much more reliable with little 
children than with adults, in many of whom the process of sup- 
pressing concrete imagery has gone a long way, as in the case of 
Ev. I was somewhat surprised, accordingly, when my study of 
the vocabularies used yielded something like positive results, 
though, to be sure, attacking the problem from this side is a 
different matter. The subjects who proved to have the most rep- 
resentative vocabulary, the largest proportion of words that 
might be expected to call up concrete imagery or sensations, were 
E, Ty, and Rg, all of whom had previously been diagnosed as 
highly imaginal types. T, though very imaginal, has not a very 
large vocabulary and is not accustomed to expressing her concrete 
mental content in words, as are the other highly imaginal types. 

72 Stern, W., Die Aussage als geistige Leistung und als Verhorsproduct. 
Experimentelle Schuler-unterschungen, 1904. 

73 Colvin, S. S., Method of Determining Ideational Types, 1909. 



124 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Of those who used the largest proportion of abstract terms, R, 
By, Ev. and B, all but Ev have been shown to be highly verbal; 
By with a tendency to suppress concrete imagery in connection 
with words ; B with a tendency to use complex and dim imagery, 
often of an unanalyzable type; R, with a good deal of concrete 
imagery, largely motor, present in mind during reading or talk- 
ing. The apparent discrepancy in the case of R, however, is 
really only the other side of a double tendency; though he has the 
largest per cent of abstract terms in the results from Group III, 
and the next largest in the results from Group IV, he has also, 
in the latter case, the next largest proportion of representative 
words. Ev's record is only fairly verbal; his strong tendency to 
use words of a rather complex nature, connotative and abstract, 
is to be correlated probably with the very large amount of mental 
content which — though a consideration of his introspections will, 
I think, convince the reader that he is an unusually keen and 
intelligent observer of the processes of his mind — he is unable to 
analyze. At the extremes, at any rate, it is true that the habitual 
use of much concrete imagery produces a representative vocabu- 
lary, and the lack of it a less representative, more abstract vo- 
cabulary. The poets E and Ty, I am interested to note, fall 
into the first group. Of the four using a more abstract vocabu- 
lary, Ev, B, By, and R, Ev, By, and R, in my judgment, have 
the largest working vocabularies of any of the subjects tested in 
the second part of this investigation; and B is very verbal in 
thought. 

To a considerable degree the ability to give a quick oral re- 
sponse in Groups III and IV is correlated with quick time rec- 
ords in the word association and other tests. There is a differ- 
ence for the subjects between oral and written expression, R and 
Rg being very much slower in written, and B and E faster. 
The tests of Groups III and IV show conclusively that word 
responses are often purely automatic, not preceded by any verbal 
imagery. The subjects who show this automatic tendency most 
markedly here are those who showed it also in the association 
test. The habit of automatic verbal reaction may occur where 
the use of words in thinking is comparatively slight. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 125 

This automatic reaction in words probably accompanies great 
fluency, or facility, in the use of words, and explains how such 
facility if not carefully checked may produce expression that is 
far from effective ; for the automatized vocabulary is narrow and 
conventional, and represents very quick and often, therefore, 
very superficial identifications or judgments. 

The introspections covering the period just preceding verbal 
expression show that words, phrases and sentences occur more 
or less freely in the mental content, the amount of this verbal 
imagery varying with the subject. It is evident, however, that 
these verbal elements do not by any means make up the whole 
stream of thought; they occur there in connection with a great 
deal of concrete imagery, some of it dim, vestigial, symbolic, 
some of it vivid, representative, and with other content that so 
far as these experiments go is unanalyzable. These other factors, 
like the comparative amount of verbal imagery, also vary demon- 
strably with the individual. 

For the subjects that I have examined at least, thinking is not 
carried on primarily in connected verbal elements, in "literary 
form." Most of the sentences which occur before expression in 
the process of thought are, in truth, not essential parts of that 
process at all, but communication by the thinker with himself; 
they are critical, mandatory or the like. "I must wait till I have 
a complete sentence"; "but it isn't a pretty horse and buggy"; 
"What in the world !" "Oh dear, I can't think of a sentence." 
The reason why they are not as a rule recognized by the subjects 
as sentences for response is that they are not integral parts of 
his thought process, they are not in the line of his task, but 
by-products. 

Concrete imagery, either definite or vague, and thought con- 
tent so vestigial or complex or unrelated to any of the content 
usually described as imaginal as to be unanalyzable and un- 
describable by the subjects, function in these processes of thought. 
In my work upon unanalyzable forms of mental content I am well 
aware that I am on dangerous ground, the territory of imageless 
thought. But my concern is with a demonstration that thought 
processes occur in forms very far removed indeed from verbal, 



126 ESTHER E. SHAW 

in forms too complex and syncopated and swift to find automatic 
expression in words; not with any demonstration that this 
thought content is imageless in character. 

The content of thought is, however, so far as my subjects 
were able to go with introspection, often imageless. It does not 
contain what in these experiments we have considered imagery — 
centrally aroused content of the same character as peripherally 
aroused sensations, or not differing from them in any other way 
than degree. Even in the thinking of the most imaginal subjects 
a great deal of content unanalyzable into images occurs. It does 
not seem to any of them that sensations like those from the chair 
on which they sit, or the lunch they have lately eaten, can be 
even remotely identified with the extremely complex and varying 
thought units that are continually presenting themselves in con- 
sciousness. Nor can all imageless thought be explained as the 
result of progressive automatization of any sort; the first appear- 
ance in mind of a significant relationship seems typically image- 
less. This imageless content may be preceded or followed by 
imagery; it seems possible that its accuracy may depend directly 
or indirectly upon the quality of previously experienced images, 
a definite and vivid imagery giving rise to right conceptions of 
likeness and difference. It is possible that kinds of relation- 
ships are recognized when they occur, or that the beginnings of 
arousal of many related images 74 may make a recognizable whole 
— of which the group relation, the unity, the togetherness, is the 
outstanding thing. Or it may be that such a togetherness may 
play its part in mental processes without even the near-presence 
of imagery in consciousness. I agree with Woodworth 75 when 
he says, "It appeared that imageless thought, the mere gross fact 
of observation, had come to stay, and that the only question was 
what to do with it." But it does not seem to me that Woodworth 
has helped matters much by adding the mental percept as the 
element alone which is recalled, if he has distinguished it from 
image, as he seems to have done, on the ground that it may be 

74 Ach, Willenstatigkeit und Denken, p. 217. 

75 Woodworth, R. S., A Revision of Imageless Thought, Psch. Rev. Vol. 
XXII, No. 1. Jan. 1915. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 127 

isolated. We have in practice always considered the image capa- 
ble of isolation; we have, for instance, been able to conceive of 
abstraction. His discussion suggests anew the need of a treat- 
ment of what we mean by image, and particularly of a more 
extended treatment of the relation between image and mental 
percept as Woodworth conceives them. And I cannot see that 
in mental percepts, each of which is "specific, and contributes 
specific content," he has provided any better explanation for the 
presence of relationships in mind than we had before. 

Thinking in words is not necessary either to clear thought or 
to clear expression. The expression will often follow purely 
automatically, as we have seen. By's account of his reaction to 
the ivory fan (p. 122) is an excellent example. Processes of 
judgment, which find expression in clear-cut sentences in from 
one to two seconds, go on without any demonstrable help from 
words. 

I should like to repeat here, what was said in the introduction, 
that I am not under-valuing in the least the importance of lan- 
guage to thought. Language affords the means of social inter- 
course by which thought is fostered ; its symbolism makes possible 
the development of the higher processes of thought. I am inter- 
ested only to show that the sustained verbal, grammatical form 
of spoken language, of communication, is not the native tongue 
of thought, which is a more complex process. The writing of clear 
English results from clear thinking, undoubtedly, but not nec- 
essarily from clear thinking in words. Expression may be auto- 
matic, and it may be, as it is often described in the introspections, 
a "terming,'' a wording, a translation into words. And this trans- 
lation process is easier for some types than for others, inasmuch 
as the type influences such matters as the nature of the vocabu- 
lary, -and the verbal habit of the individual, and may even incline 
some individuals to deal with some sorts of materials rather than 
with others. The process of wording, however, if it is not 
immediately the cause of clearness, is at least a test of it, a test 
of the thought's social availability, a means of projecting it, for 
criticism either by others or by the self. 



128 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Expression in language, even for those who are practiced in it 
and make a business of it, is difficult even in words and all but 
impossible in sentence form, unless there is present a motive for 
communication or expression. A certain degree of excitement 
due to the presence of an audience — and the audience may be 
only the self — a desire to communicate, or an element of excite- 
ment or feeling due to the effect of the stimulus upon the person, 
giving him a desire to express himself, seem to be necessary to 
any adequate functioning of the power of expression in language, 
or presumably, in any other form. As to the occurrence of the 
verb, description, which is the form of discourse under which 
most of the speech and writing educed by this experiment falls, 
seems a comparatively verbless form. And it is certainly true that 
judgments come to expression, expression that seems perfectly 
satisfactory to the speaker and clear to the hearer, without the 
verb, except when action or personal reaction is the center of the 
thought. It is almost enough to make one conclude, as Meader 
seems to, that the complete sentence form is very often not natural 
or essential, but a conventional requirement of the rhetorician. 

Though the individual is driven to communicate usually in 
verbal form, his imagery type will influence his choice of a 
means of expression. Literary excellence will depend somewhat 
upon the vividness and clearness and accuracy of imagery, even 
if only as a prerequisite to the growth of more complex and 
abstract forms of thought. Too great suppression of concrete 
imagery, too much substitution of abstract and symbolic forms of 
thought, will impair the vivid and representative quality of 
writing. 

Summary of Conclusions. 
I. Types of imagery, though complex, may be determined with 
sufficient clearness to make possible a study of their correla- 
tions with other processes. 
II. Imagery types influence the kind of vocabulary, and to some 

extent the time necessary to react verbally. 
III. This verbal reaction is more or less automatic in character, 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 129 

varying with the individual and with the originality of what 
he has to say. 

IV. Words, phrases, and sentences occur more or less freely in the 

thought process — varying with the type of the individuals. 
V. A great deal of imagery other than verbal is present in the 
processes preceding speech. It may be present as part, or 
all, of the process of judging; and may be very vague, or so 
vestigial or complex or unrelated to the content usually de- 
scribed as imaginal as to be unanalyzable, without affecting 
the clearness of the thought. 

VI. This investigation has been seriously affected by the fact, 
which comes out clearly in the course of it, that any adequate 
verbal expression, even for those who make a business of it, 
is dependent upon a motive for communication or expression. 



APPENDIX. 

Detailed description of experiments used in Mental Diagnosis. 
I. Reading of descriptive passages. 

First five read silently as nearly normally as possible : 

i. There is a place in front of the Royal Exchange where the 
wide pavement reaches out like a promontory. It is the shape of 
a triangle with a rounded apex. A stream of traffic runs on 
either side, and other streets send their currents down into the 
open space before it. Like the spokes of a wheel converging 
streams of human life flow into this agitated pool. . . .Blue carts 
and yellow omnibuses, varnished carriages and brown vans, green 
omnibuses and red cabs, pale loads of yellow straw, rusty-red 
iron clanking on paintless carts, high white woolpacks, grey 
horses, bay horses, black teams; sunlight sparkling on brass 
harness, gleaming from carriage panels; jingle, jingle, jingle! 
A. . .jingle, too, of colour; flecks of colour champed, as it were, 
like bits in the horses' teeth, frothed and strewn about. (Jeffer- 
ies. The Story of my Heart, p. 87. Longmans, 1883.) 

2. Throughout the winter of 1861-62, McClellan had under his 
immediate command double the force of the Confederate general, 
Joseph E. Johnston, but he could not be induced to take the field. 
In March, 1892, he at last assumed the offensive. Instead of 
maneuvering Johnston out of his fortified position, and attack- 
ing him on the first opportunity, McClellan decided to transport 
his army to the peninsula formed by the York and James rivers, 
and advance upon Richmond from the east instead of from the 
north. By pursuing this route, he would avoid crossing the 
Rappahannock, Rapidan, Pamunkey, and Mattapony rivers, and 
would compel Johnston to abandon his camps near Bull Run and 
march southward to the defense of the Confederate capital, (pp. 
507-509, Channing's Students' History of the United States. 
Macmillan, 191 5.) This was followed in all cases by a repro- 
duction, and in several cases by another passage of a similar 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 131 

nature, to test the result when the subject was expecting to give 
a reproduction. 

3. So she came holding her dress with one fair rounded arm, 
and her taper before her, tripping down the stair to greet 
Esmond. 

"She hath put on her scarlet stockings and white shoes," says 
my lord, still laughing. 

"Oh, my fine mistress ! is this the way you set your cap for 
the captain !" She approached, shining smiles upon Esmond, who 
could look at nothing but her eyes. She advanced holding for- 
ward her head, as if she would have him kiss her as he used to 
do when she was a child. 

"Stop,'' she said, "I'm grown too big! Welcome, Cousin 
Harry," and she made him an arch courtsy, sweeping down to 
the ground almost, with the most gracious bend, looking up the 
while with the brightest eyes and sweetest smile. (The History 
of Henry Esmond, Bk. II, ch. 7.) 

4. Who hath smelt wood smoke at twilight ? 

Who hath heard the birch log burning? 
Who is quick to read the noises of the night? 
Let him follow with the others, for the young men's feet 

are turning 
To the camps of proved desire and known delight. 

(Kipling. The Feet of the Young Men.) 
This was followed in all cases by a reproduction. 

5. Ah, bitter chill it was! 

The owl for all his feathers was a-cold ; 
The hare limped trembling through the frozen grass, 
And silent was the flock in woolly fold ; 
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told 
His rosary, and while his frosted breath, 
Like pious incense from a censer old, 
Seem'd taking flight to heaven without a death, 
Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer he saith. 

(Keats. Eve of St. Agnes.) 
This was used in a few cases only, where the results of 4 were 
not good. 



132 ESTHER E. SHAW 

Two read aloud by the subject: 

6. Then I rested, sitting by the wheat ; the bank of beach was 
between me and the sea, but the waves beat against it; the sea 
was there, the sea was present and at hand. By the dry wheat I 
rested, I did not think, I was inhaling the richness of the sea, all 
the strength and meaning of the sea and earth came to me again. 
I rubbed out some of the wheat in my hands, I took up a piece 
of clod and crumbled it in my fingers — it was a joy to touch it — 
I held my hand so that I could see the sunlight gleam on the 
slightly moist surface of the skin. (Jefferies. The Story of My 
Heart, p. 113. Longmans.) 

7. Time, now that the deed was accomplished — time, which 
had closed for the victim, had become instant and momentous 
for the slayer .... The thought was yet in his mind, when, first 
one and then another, with every variety of pace and voice — one 
deep as the bell from a cathedral turret, another ringing on its 
treble notes the prelude of a waltz — the clocks began to strike the 
hour of three in the afternoon. 

The sudden outbreak of so many tongues in that dumb cham- 
ber staggered him. He began to bestir himself, going to and 
fro with the candle, beleaguered by moving shadows, and startled 
to the soul by chance reflections. In many rich mirrors, some of 
home design, some from Venice or Amsterdam, he saw his face 
repeated and repeated, as it were an army of spies his own eyes 
met and detected him; and the sound of his own steps, lightly 
as they fell, vexed the surrounding quiet. . . . 

The faint, foggy daylight glimmered dimly on the bare floor 
and stairs; on the bright suit of armor posted, halberd in 
hand, upon the landing; and on the dark wood-carvings, and 
framed pictures that hung against the yellow panels of the 
wainscot. So loud was the beating of the rain through all the 
house that, in Markheim's ears, it began to be distinguished into 
many different sounds. Footsteps and sighs, the tread of regi- 
ments marching in the distance, the chink of money in the count- 
ing, and the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar, appeared to 
mingle with the patter of the drops upon the cupola and the gush- 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 133 

ing of the water in the pipes. The sense that he was not alone 
grew upon him to the verge of madness. 

( Stevenson. Markheim. ) 
Two read by the investigator to the subject : 

8. Imagine two steel knife blades with their keen edges cross- 
ing each other at right angles, and moving to and fro. (Used by 
Miss Fernald. James. Psychology II. p. 452.) 

9. (In cases where Markheim was familiar selections from 
other short stories were used.) 

Presently the notes of a piano were awakened to the music of 
a hymn, and the voices of many children took up the air and 
words. How stately, how comfortable was the melody! How 
fresh the youthful voices ! Markheim gave ear to it smilingly as 
he sorted out the keys, and his mind was thronged with answer- 
able ideas and images — churchgoing children and the pealing 
of the high organ; children afield, bathers by the brookside, 
ramblers on the brambly common, kite-flyers in the windy and 
cloud-navigated sky; and then, at another cadence of the hymn, 
back again to church, and the somnolence of summer Sundays, 
and the high genteel voice of the parson (which he smiled a 
little to recall), and the painted Jacobean tombs and the dim let- 
tering of the ten commandments in the chancel. (Stevenson. 
Markheim. ) 

II. Spelling backwards, and pronouncing from words spelled 
backwards. 

1. Spelling backwards. 

Oral Written 

1. friendliness sequestered 

2. substitute equivalent 

3. assurance credibility 

4. simplicity utterance 

5. cylindrical temperament 

6. vivacious mischief 

7. manuscript reverence 

8. insatiable witchcraft 

9. heterogeneous promiscuous 

10. intersperse fictitious 

The time was taken by the stopwatch from the moment of 
pronunciation to the spelling of the last letter. 

2. Pronouncing from words spelled backwards. 



134 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



One letter per second. 
i. glance 

2. identical 

3. broadens 

4. chasm 

5. equipment 

6. Ethel 

7. mobiliation 

8. solve 

9. quotient 

10. system 

11. mathematics 

12. grammarian 

13. literature 

14. linguistic 

15. democrat 
15. progressive 

17. implicit 

18. Hungary 

19. fashion 

20. fundamental 



Two letters per second 
assertion 
analytic 
attached 
amiable 
Belgium 
pronounce 
abbreviate 
principle 
raises 
potential 
salamander 
equivalent 
exclamation 
rudimentary 
homogeneous 
genuine 
conclusion 
definition 
Michigan 
symmetry 



The time was taken from the speaking of the first letter to the 
beginning of pronunciation. 

III. Memory of various kinds of symbols. Exposed for 10 
seconds. 



Six items 
1. Z 
6 

Nine items 

3- h 

4 

H 



5- 



5 

3 

16 



VII 

IV 

XL 

o 

VIII 



V 

N 



A 

s 
1 

7 

IX 
XI 



2. 



4- 



8 


XL 


4 


VI 


3 


ii 


6 


V 


9 


X 


3 


VII 


2 


8 


IV 


B 


4 


t 


=z 


m 


XI 


iii 


X 


1 



IV. Memory of words alike in sound but not in appearance. 
Exposed for 15 seconds. 



Test a. 



Test b. 



Test c. 



cent 

raise 

sight 

pair 

ere 

ewe 

so 

I 

reign 



rays 

site 

raze 

air 

yew 

pare 

rein 

sew 

eye 



cite 

sent 

scent 

you 

pear 

heir 

sow 

rain 

aye 



V. Word lists. 
1. Rhyming lists. 



One minute allowed to write all words 



FACTORS INFLUENCING VERBAL EXPRESSION 135 

which occurred as rhyming with a given word. All lengths and 
proper names allowed. Words : home, speak, case, hope, low. 

2. Lists of words grouped according to spelling. Time, one 
minute. Endings used: -one, -ough, -ose, -ave, -ine. 

3. Lists of words from endings given, as in 2, grouped in 
columns according to sound. Time, two minutes. Endings 
used : -are, -ove, -ear, -ead, -oth. 

VI. Memory of words spelled alike but pronounced differently. 
1. Words read once by experimenter and reproduced orally 
by subject. 



wind 


lives 


row 


bass 


mall 


lives 


row 


wind 


bass 



2. Words read once by experimenter to subject, who follows 
on a list which he holds, of the same words with no indication 
of their pronunciation. He then thinks through the words once 
with the list still before him, and reads them aloud from the list. 
All he is asked to do is to keep the auditory difference between 
the words. 

lead aye dovd bow aye dove lead bow read 

VII. Memory of pictures. Experiment as first used drawn 
from Miss Fernald's work. 

1. 8 picture postals, 4 colored, 4 uncolored, exposed for 10 
seconds each. To be described as fully as possible. Introspec- 
tions taken to throw light on methods of learning and of recall. 

2. 8 picture postals, all colored, exposed for 10 seconds each. 
4 described immediately, 4 after another experiment has been 
done. 

Experiment as used later. Cards, both colored and uncolored, 
were shown for periods of 2, 4, and 10 seconds. Some of each 
of these were recalled after a week's interval. 

The Free Word Association Test. 

The material from this test was arranged for study in such a 
way as to give on a single line the stimulus word, its part of 



136 



ESTHER E. SHAW 



speech, its type (objective, sensuous, or the like), its known 
associations (as with previous experiments), the reaction word, 
its part of speech and type, the type of the reaction (informa- 
tion drawn from introspections), and the reaction time. The 
list of words is given below. The abbreviations indicate the 
probable type of the word : Ab. — abstract, ob. — objective, s. — 
sensuous, at. — attributive, con. — connotative. 



1. florid — at. 

2. twilight — con. 

3. fly — ob. 

4. chill — s. 

5. prose — ab. 

6. quince — ob. 

7. critical — ab. 

8. rippling — s. 

9. treasure — con. 

10. over — ab. 

11. drab — s. or at. 

12. hum — s. 

13. brook — ob. 

14. wind — ob. 

15. wit — ab. 

16. briskly — at. 

17. hall — ob. 

18. Orpheus — con. 

19. remember — ab. 

20. silvery — s. 

21. severe — at. 

22. come — ob. 

23. hard — s. or at. 

24. frog — ob. 

25. savoursome — s. 

26. broadens — ab. 

27. olivaceous — ab. or s. 

28. culture — ab. 

29. courtsy — con. 

30. scarlet? — s. 

31. function — ab. 

32. maple — ob. 

33. reading — ob. 

34. humble — at. 

35. carrot — ob. 

36. bell — ob. 

37. mirrors — ob. or con. 

38. braes — con. 



39. Hall — ob. or con. 

40. comely — at. 

41. lake — ob. 

42. omnibuses — ob. or 

con. 

43. 1861-62 — en. 

44. also — ab. 

45. woolly — s. 

46. dichotomy — ab. 

47. cling — con. 

48. majestic — at. 

49. medium — ab. 

50. paddle — ob. 
Si. vagrant — con. 

52. heterogeneous — ab. 

53. clock — ob. 

54. dive — ob. 

55. tapir— ob. 

56. pale — s. or at. 

57. myriad — con. 

58. spread — ob. 
59 murmur — s. 

60. gem — ob. or eon. 

61. streaming — s. or at. 

62. inculcate — ab. 

63. lapping — s. 

64. due — ab. 

65. golden — s. 

66. jeopardy — con. 

67. chattered — con. 

68. arcade — ob. 

69. low — at. 

70. Japanese — at. 

71. logical — ab. 

72. chink — con. 

73. tired — at. 

74. eggs— ob. 

75. blue — s. 



76. analyze — ab. 

77. sultry — s. 

78. equivalent — ab. 

79. sumptuous — at. 

80. rhea — ob. 

81. bugle — ob. 

82. tide — con. or ob. 

83. sesquipedalian — ab. 

84. grim — at. 

85. jingle— s. 

86. dusky — s. or at. 

87. animated — at. 

88. knifeblades — ob. 

89. isobar — ab. 
00. yes — ab. 

91. conterminous — ab. 

92. punch — s. or ob. 

93. eighty— ab. 

94. grate — ob. 

95. hyacinth — ob. or con. 

96. assimilate — ab. 

98. enjoyed — at. 

99. incommensurable — 

ab. 

100. gray — s. 

101. moist — s. 

102. distribute — ab. 

103. wended — con. 

104. lawns — ob. 

105. host — con. 

106. bliss — con. 

107. dyes — ob. 

108. serene — at. 

109. turf — con. 
no. vast — at. 
in. piping — s. 

112. extract — ab. 

113. cinnamon — s. or ob. 



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